Flaxmore Vineyards

About

Located in the Moutere hills near Nelson, NZ, this a premium vineyard of mainly Pinot Noir (along with Chardonnay and Pinot Gris) grown on 9 hectares of gentle north-facing slopes.

Story

Flaxmore Vineyards is located in the Moutere hills area of Nelson at the north-west of New Zealand’s South Island. The particular site of our vineyard comprises gentle north-facing, clay-bound gravel slopes of a small valley that was first established with apple orchards 100 years ago (with a history of land-care dating back to the 1880’s). In time, those orchards supplied apples for the British market, more recently being a premium supplier to Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. The land that is now Flaxmore Vineyards previously won regular awards for “Best Braeburn Apple in NZ” reflecting the sheer depth of flavour that sites such as this are capable of.

These gentle slopes hold much promise, primarily for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay along with Pinot Gris. A history of the Moutere area describes Flaxmore Valley (in the late 1800’s) as being a “small oasis in a challenging environment”.

The Nelson area has developed substantially since that time but we were reminded of the site’s special feel when we took Dr. David Jordan, our Viticulturalist, there for the first time in 2007. Standing on a spur he remarked on what a great find it was; and his surprise that it wasn’t already planted in vines; we’ve subsequently learnt of earlier attempts by well known winemakers to secure this Flaxmore site, so we feel fortunate to have the opportunity.

Products

We are launching the Flaxmore label with a single vineyard series of wines: A 2018 Pinot Gris and Rosé have just been released and the Pinot Noir is currently in barrel for release in April 2019. We are developing several parcels of chardonnay for expected release in 2020.

The 2018 vintage was another challenging year when a summer of climatic perfection started to unravel by early February. This was not entirely dissimilar to recent vintages where lessons had been learnt: we benefited from aggressive leaf plucking and bunch thinning for optimal airflow and ensuring that a lower yielding crop was able to achieve the ripeness and phenolic structure we desired.

From the vine to the bottle, our wines are fully accredited by Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand.