"Bell-Ringer" SV Gisborne Albarino 2019
Double Gold Medal & Champion Aromatic Trophy.
01036
Select Vineyards Wines, Gisborne, Albarino
Description
Winemakers NotesAlbariño hails from the North West of Spain and Northern Portugal. This wine is so named because it tastes and smells as pure as the peal of a bell, and it was grown by Doug and Delwyn Bell in their vineyard just outside of Gisborne. We have only used free run juice from the Spanish ‘Mass Selection’ clone for this wine.
The fruit quality in 2019 was superb and eight prior vintages of experience with this vineyard gave us the confidence to try something new this year – so – a portion of juice went straight from the press into old barrels for a ‘wild and dirty’ ferment, and, a smaller portion of clarified juice went off to old barrels for a ‘wild and clean’ ferment. The resulting assemblage is around 23% wild ferment, with the bulk of that coming from the ‘wild and dirty’ component. This gives the wine extraordinary texture and mouth-watering salinity.
Analysis
| Alc | 13% |
| Acid | 8g/L |
| Res sugar | 5.0g/L |
| pH | 3.37 |
Tasting Notes
| Colour: | At bottling the wine was very pale with light green tints. With time we expect that it will develop some pale gold hints. |
| Bouquet: | Pure and fresh, with hints of citrus and peach. |
| Palate: | Medium bodied and zesty. This wine has a brilliant acid line and this gives the palate real length. |
Cellaring
Thus far, our Albariños have been aging more slowly than we expected. The wine is delightful in its youth, but may well age beautifully into the medium term.
Food Matches
Perfect with seafood, chicken and paella
Independent Reviewer's Comment
“Delicately aromatic wine with mandarin, lime and citrus flavours supported by fresh, fruity acidity that gives the wine some welcome tension. A fresh, focused wine with good purity.” Bob Campbell
Awards| Gold Medal, Top 50 & Aromatic Trophy | New World Wine Awards, 2019 |
| Gold Medal | NZ Aromatic Wine Competition, 2019 |
| Buy of the Week | The Real Review, 21 November 2019 |
Vintage Tasting Notes - Download PDFs
