Our yields are kept very low and the vineyard is managed with a combination of organic and biodynamic practices. The vineyard is planted to 7 different varieties with a selection of clones of ~ Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah.

Our vineyard is hand-tended as much as humanly possible as we feel that a person can treat each vine individually and coax the best from it rather than a machine which does the exact same thing to each vine. It does mean more time and effort but we think it is more than worth it for the resultant quality.

Our aim is to grow great quality fruit and this starts with great quality dirt or Good Dirt. If a vine has a good start in the soil it can grow fruit which is balanced in all its components, is physiologically ripe and therefore requires minimal winemaking intervention once we get it in the winery. This means a cropping level which is controlled and so we do selective crop thinning at a number of key times during the growing season.

2014 marked the 35th anniversary of the first plantings at Te Whare Ra and also the release of our wines with the newly updated Single Vineyard 5182 series labels. We released our aromatics with this new label as well as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah.  This journey started out in 1979 with the Te Whare Ra original plantings which are now the oldest vines in the Marlborough region.  We have chosen to use our organic certification number 5182 to celebrate what this place has now become.

5182 is of huge significance to us as it is our vineyard designation number from BIOGRO New Zealand.  This number represents all our hard work and effort over the past 11 years to achieve our organic certification.  Our SV 5182 wines represent all the things that we feel are important – provenance, organic farming and authentic, world class wines from Marlborough.