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Terra Sancta

Mark Weldon bought this property on Felton Road in Bannockburn in 2011. He makes all of his wines from his 31 hectares of vines (24 currently yielding fruit), which are mostly planted around the winery. Fully three-quarters of Terra Sancta's production is Pinot Noir, with another 15% being “real rosé”; there is also Pinot Gris, Riesling and Chardonnay.

Weldon has been harvesting earlier in recent vintages. "We get good flavors at lower alcohols here and we don’t add back acidity,” he explained, adding that he harvested early in 2015 “before Brix levels skyrocketed” and was thus able to capture and preserve the mineral freshness of this vintage. Winemaker Jody Pagey vinifies the Terra Sancta Pinots with wild yeasts but not the rosé.

Weldon, who harvests entirely by hand, is a strong partisan of the 2012s, which he prizes for their purity of fruit. “The two thousand thirteens are more linear wines that show a cola character, and 2014 is also very good," he told me. Current annual production at Terra Sancta is about 14,000 cases but will rise in the next few years as the estate’s last seven hectares of plantings come on line.

From New Zealand’s Pellucid Wines: More Light Than Heat (May 2016) by Stephen Tanzer

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2015 Pinot Gris Mysterious Diggings

Color: Red

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