A family estate grown slowly on the limestone terraces above the valley, where the evening wind rakes gold across the rows at the end of the day.
01The estate
We are a small family vineyard on a north-facing limestone terrace, where old tussock, white stone and patient seasons do most of the work, and we try not to get in their way.
The Lindqvist family planted the first block in the spring of 1998, on ground everyone said was too stony to bother with. The stone turned out to be the point. It holds the day's heat, drains the autumn rain, and pushes the vines to dig deep for what they need.
Everything here is grown and made on the one property. We pick by hand, ferment in small parcels, and let each wine take the time it asks for. Nothing leaves the estate in a hurry.
02Grown & made here
A small range, four wines, each from a named block on the estate. We make only what the season gives us, so vintages move and some years a wine simply rests.
From the oldest vines on the property. Lime, white flowers and wet stone, bone-dry with a long line of acid that keeps it honest.
Whole-bunch and patient. Dark cherry, dried thyme and a fine, dusty tannin off the limestone. The wine the estate is named for, really.
Wild-fermented in seasoned oak. White peach and roasted hazelnut, a saline edge from the stone, and just enough texture to carry it.
A short rest on Pinot skins, picked early off the warm terrace. Pale copper, redcurrant and crushed herb, made for a long lunch in the sun.
Vintages shown are illustrative and change with the season. Tasting flights at the cellar door pour whatever is open and singing on the day.
03Land & family
Three generations, one terrace, and a great deal of patience.
When my grandparents arrived from the coast in the mid-nineties, the agent walked them past this terrace twice without stopping. Too stony, he said, too exposed to the dry summer wind. My grandmother got out of the car anyway, picked up a handful of the pale limestone, and decided it reminded her of somewhere she loved. That was more or less the whole business plan.
The first block went in the following spring, by hand, between the old tussock that still runs along the top fence. For years it was just the family, a tractor that started on its own terms, and a lot of learning the hard way. The stone, it turned out, was never the problem. It was the answer.
We do not own this terrace so much as look after it for a while. The vines were here before us, and we would like them here long after.
Today my mother makes the wine and my father walks the rows, and I have somehow ended up doing a bit of both. We have stayed deliberately small. Everything is hand-picked into the same battered bins, fermented in the same shed, and tasted around the same kitchen table before it ever earns a label.
What we are really growing is a particular feeling of this place: white stone, dry hills, and that last hour of gold light before the valley cools. If a bottle carries even a little of that home with you, we have done the job.
04Come and visit
Our cellar door sits in the old packing shed at the bottom of the home block, looking back up the rows toward the hill. Pull in off the highway, follow the gravel, and someone will be there to pour.
Seated tastings run through the afternoon. We keep a few cheeseboards and a wood fire going in the cooler months, and the dog is, regrettably, in charge of greetings.
05Get in touch
Tell us when you would like to come and how many you will be, and we will hold a spot at the bar for a seated tasting. We will always reply to confirm before anything is locked in.