Autumn 2025 Winemaker’s Comment
Wow, I finally made the cover of the Newsletter! As many of you will be aware, our release newsletter features a different photograph from the vineyard, the winery, or the team each year. Along with creating some fabulous lunches; his ever thoughtful, restrained hand on the tiller; and designing the famous harvest t-shirts; the newsletter artwork is normally one of Nigel’s roles – though the girls sprung last year’s on him! I’m not sure how I made it this year: my 29th vintage at Felton Road is not really a distinctive milestone. Perhaps it was my surprisingly clean shirt and trim haircut?! Or was it simply just my turn? I feel somewhat uncomfortable as our wines and business are an entire team effort. All the hard work in the vines; the continual cleaning in the winery; the necessary bureaucracy and paperwork in the office; then the receiving of visitors and shipping of wine – it takes a talented and dedicated crew. We are deeply appreciative of every single contribution from our team – without which we would not have the wines and recognition we receive.
In last year’s Autumn Newsletter, we mentioned how thrilled we were to have just been awarded The Real Review New Zealand Winery of the Year 2024. Well, as I go to write this year’s missive, it feels like Groundhog Day as remarkably, we have been recognised for the second time running – the first time a winery has won consecutively. In the words of Stephen Wong MW from The Real Review:
“Felton Road is the Winery of the Year New Zealand 2025, proving that they have not rested on their laurels since winning in 2024. In the past year, all of their new releases were tasted blind, with their chardonnay and pinot noir cuvées included in a lineup of just under 100 others from Central Otago. In every case, their wines shone for that balance of elegance and power which has become a hallmark of the winery…..there is no doubt the wines will age gracefully into complex, beguiling old bottles over time. The sleek and compact style simply provides wine lovers a much wider (read: earlier) drinking window for these wines than the firmly built pinot noirs which are not so accessible in their youth.
Although best known for their pinot noir—and rightly so—Felton Road’s chardonnay program has yielded fantastic fruit. Just as there are two single-block wines for pinot noir (3 and 5), there are two blocks for chardonnay (2 and 6). These two have slowly diverged from each other with each vintage and now stand distinct with their own strong personalities. The most recent releases speak of site much more than they do of variety, which is a sign of maturity in both the vines and in our understanding of them. Speaking of understanding the vines, the latest release of MacMuir Pinot Noir is a step up in control and refinement from the earlier vintages too, as the team brings the ‘new’ site into the fold, and it finds its place.”
This kind of acknowledgement is immensely rewarding for the entire team to receive. Some critics just say nice things, but when they ‘get it’; when they understand what we’re trying to do, it makes the long days, early mornings, late nights, weekends and public holidays that we are out there tending our vines and wines, and engaging with our customers, all the more worthwhile.
As to the first of the 2024’s we are releasing? What more can we say than 2023 and 2024 are very similar vintages, in fact, the most similar back to back vintages we have seen in a very long time. Not clones of each other, but stylistic siblings. While we never pre-judge critical comment, we know that they are from another very high-quality, classic vintage. A hat trick perhaps? We’ll leave that for you to decide!
Cheers
Blair
