Half of the year seems to have disappeared on us without a chance to pause and reflect on our latest harvest! Every year comes with its own unique set of challenges and vintage 2022 was certainly no different. Finding labour this season was particularly difficult, so Yealands staff usually occupied in other roles slipped into gumboots and rolled up their sleeves to lend a hand with harvesting and processing.

Marlborough returned to a more average crop yield this year after a light season in 2021, so there was a bit of pressure to get wine out the door quickly to keep supply up - resulting in our earliest bottling ever at the start of May. It was a classic Marlborough harvest, with the beautiful sunny days and cool nights that bring vibrant acidity and intense fruit flavours to our wines. There was some disease pressure in parts of the Wairau Valley so a prompt harvest was completed in those blocks in early March.

The Awatere fruit was in great condition and our Seaview vineyard produced some incredible wines with great depth of flavour and beautiful structure and mouthfeel. The 2022 Sauvignons are vibrant and fresh, with classic Marlborough tropical fruit and herbaceous flavours coming through, and the Pinot Gris has lovely pear drop notes with a good mineral purity through the palate.

The team worked incredibly hard this vintage and we are looking forward to getting these wines out into market for the world to enjoy.

Cheers!

Nat Christensen, Chief Winemaker