Mahi is situated in Marlborough on the north-eastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established by Brian and Nicola Bicknell in 2001, and in 2006 they purchased the historic winery giving Mahi a home and a sense of place.
The main aim of Mahi is to highlight the quality and diversity of individual vineyard sites in Marlborough. The name Mahi means “our work, our craft” and it was chosen to show that wine is their work, passion and craft while also paying respect to the history of the land and tea o Maori.
Mahi produces multiple single vineyard wines as well as a regional Marlborough range .They source grapes from over eight different vineyard sites across the region having sought out the right sites, planted with the right varieties, a number of which are farmed biodynamically and are certified organic.
The primary emphasis for all Mahi wines is texture, that offer true palate satisfaction and compliment food. All the wines are made in a ‘hands off’ style to allow the true expression of the vineyard site to shine through.
This wine comes from a small parcel in the Twin Valley Vineyard, located in the Fareham Lane area of Marlborough.
The vineyard is at the western end of the Wairau Valley, at the junction with the Waihopai, and is on the top terrace.
The upper terrace along the Wairau has a more complex soil, a great mixture of silt, clay and stones that give drainage but also some water-holding to help the vines through the dry periods.
Being some distance from the sea the climate is also cooler. The grapes therefore typically ripen more slowly and retain an interesting mineral character.
The vines were cropped low to ensure ripeness and palate richness. T
he grapes were then whole-cluster pressed and the high-solids juice taken straight to French barriques for fermentation with indigenous yeast.
After 15 months in oak we felt the balance was correct and took the wine from barrel.
This year, our 22nd, was again distinctive and again it was early and some serious rainfall at veraison meant that the berries were bigger this year, so the crops were slightly higher.
Starting on March the 10th we harvested quickly and finished the earliest ever. It was not a hot vintage, so the flavours were retained, but we felt the grapes were fragile so picked quickly as things ripened.
We saw early on that it was a bigger year and, with cooler easterlies winds predominating, we
decided to drop some bunches early, up to 18 unches a vine in one parcel!? This really
helped as the vines managed to get the remaining bunches ripe and we were happy
with the health of the fruit.
April saved us also as it only had 19% of normal rainfall and we nearly had the last month of no
rain, which was so good.
Slightly lower sugars this year means the wine is perhaps more elegant and refined but it still
shows the texture we are looking .
This wine shows an array of fruit characters, ranging from citrus through to tropical notes.
This is complemented by some secondary characters from the natural yeast ferments and some
barrel aging. The palate has an elegant structure with a creamy, textural mid-palate and a long
finish.
Marlborough, New Zealand
Chardonnay
screw cap
13.5%
less than 1g/l
7.8g/l TA
