Te Whare Ra

THE STORY

Te Whare Ra (TWR) means “House of the Sun” in Maori, a small vineyard and winery located in the Marlborough. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest boutique winery with the oldest Riesling, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer vines planted in Marlborough. Owned by the Flowerday Family since 2003, this 11ha vineyard which has predominantly loam over clay soils has certified organic since 2008.

Their Top Series - Single Vineyard 5182 was released in 2014 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first plantings. 5182 is the vineyard designation number from BIOGRO New Zealand and represents all the hard work and effort over the past 11 years to achieve the organic certification.

THE VINEYARD AND WINERY

Yields are kept low, the vineyard is managed with a combination of organic and biodynamic practices and all the fruit is hand-picked and hand-sorted.

The wines are made with minimal intervention in a small winery which has been specifically set up for small batch winemaking. All the fruit is picked and sorted by hand and then moved by gravity to small open vats for fermentation.

Wines are fermented in different small tanks (i.e. 600lts and up) in according to each vineyard parcel (clone, soil type, vine age). Wines are aged with lees in the winery to build texture and complexity, and no fining agents and chemical yeast nutrients are added.

The Vineyard

Te Whare Ra (TWR) means “The House in the Sun” in Maori. The 11 Ha vineyard which has predominantly loam over clay soils, is one of the oldest in Marlborough, originally planted in 1979. Yields are kept low, the vineyard is managed with a combination of organic and biodynamic practices and all the fruit is hand picked and hand-sorted.

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