Our 4 hectare north-facing vineyard, sloping down to lakes and flanked by native bush, was planted in 1995. The Pinot Gris block was the first to be planted while we waited for further low-vigour rootstocks for the grafting of our red varieties which were added the following year. The original plantings gave us 25% Pinot Gris while the remaining 75% were Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec. Subsequent successful topgrafting has increased our Pinot Gris and Malbec, reducing our Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2003 a new 1 hectare block was established with more Pinot Gris and Petit Verdot, giving us a total of 5 hectares planted.
Each vine is carefully tended through its yearly cycle by hand, from the initial shoot selection which controls the framework of the new season’s growth, to leaf plucking to expose the developing bunches, to selecting which bunches will stay to maturity and which will be discarded. This means the vine will concentrate on ripening a small load of fruit well, rather than a large load indifferently, with a subsequent loss in flavour.
At harvest, a small team carefully selects the perfect bunches to handpick. No compromise on quality in the vineyard means low yields, but it gives us rewarding quality in the resulting wine.
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Since 1998, West Brook Winery in Waimauku has been instrumental in helping us establish the Brick Bay style of wine…restrained, elegant, and textural with exceptional fruit concentration. Anthony Ivicevich and James Rowan, together work closely with the Brick Bay team to produce our range of premium wines.
Our winemaking is based on minimal intervention using the guiding principles of gentle handling with minimal winery manipulation.
The Pinot Gris is then slowly fermented in stainless steel, while each red variety that we harvest is separately fermented out, with extended maceration to extract colour and flavour.
After minimal fining, filtering and racking the red wine spends 12 months in carefully chosen French oak barrels(around 30% new each vintage) before blending. This wine must then be allowed time to re-emerge in a harmonious new blended form and is consequently bottle-aged for a further 12 months before release.
Meeting the needs of today, without adversely impacting on the needs of tomorrow. As one of the earliest certified sustainable vineyards in the area, our accreditation verifies that our management of the vineyard is truly sustainable.
Spring is certainly a time of renewal and new growth here at Brick Bay. All six of our grape varieties have started to produce tiny leaves in that stunning lime green colour that heralds the start of the new vintage.
The arrival of lambs, piglets and ducklings , along with daffodils and bluebells in flower and the new leaves appearing on the oaks that encircle the Glass House lake, complete the feeling of seasonal rejuvenation at Brick Bay.
The tradition of growing roses in the vineyard, arose from the belief that the roses would be an early indicator of mildew infection. Although attractive, we prefer to carefully monitor the vines as a more reliable indicator!