Blackberry, guava, spice and violet aromatics lead to a fresh fruit-driven palate showing lots of elegance, freshness and drive.

The grapes that go into our Explorer wine primarily come from the top terrace Moon Block (altitude 295m), 100% estate-grown, certified organic and handpicked on the 3rd – 16th April. Stylistically, we are trying to place our more youthful vines into this wine as they tend to have a natural fruit-driven exuberance that we wish to retain. 

A typical ferment was 7-10 days cold soak at 6-10c, 7-10 days fermentation at 16-33c, 7-10 days post maceration at 22-30c. All ambient yeasts in 7 different ferments, hand plunged 2 times a day, 7% of the fruit was whole bunch to bring out lifted fruit aromatics and the remainder destemmed, not crushed. 100% of the wine went into our cuve and barrels for 10 months.

Winemaker

Domaine Thomson is a family-owned wine producer, with vineyards and homes in Central Otago, New Zealand and Burgundy, France. Owners PM and David Hall-Jones are dedicated to making the nest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines in two hemispheres - wines that express the individual terroirs of each region. ¬ The Domaine ¬Thomson crest symbolises PM and David's passion and commitment to this unique "two hemisphere" adventure.