The Redwood Hills Awatere Valley ‘Hillside’ vineyard has soils which consist of wind-blown loess overlying clays, and stony loams. This site produces wines with elegance, minerality and length. The fruit from the MacDonald Home Vineyard came from two contrasting blocks. The Seaside Block is compositionally higher in sand and shingle and has very little organic matter. This block tends to give floral and passionfruit flavours with nice bright acids. Block 1 has richer alluvial and sedimentary soils which support healthy canopies and give us ripe stone fruit, tropical, and exotic flavours. The fruit was harvested in the cool of the morning and transferred to the winery where it underwent temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel tanks using carefully selected yeast cultures. The winemaking was straight forward, as the exceptional vintage required very little intervention. The quality, and even existence, of this wine is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of our vineyard team to get the ripe grapes safely to the winery. The growing season was cooler than recent seasons, although still above long-term averages. Once again there was very little rainfall during the ripening period, which enabled the fruit to be picked clean and ripe. A classic Marlborough vintage with ripe fruit and bright fresh acids. The wines display great aromatics and fruit purity, with lovely cool climate tension.