Organically farmed grapes were grown at Ashmore Vineyard in Fairhall, adjacent to the mouth of the Brancott Valley on gravelly clay-loam soils, conditions more typical of the Southern Valleys than the Wairau plains. This 24-year-old organically certified vineyard is trained on a two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis and is rigorously shoot and fruit-thinned to regulate yield.

The fruit was hand-picked at moderate ripeness levels to capture the exuberance and natural acidity of the variety. The grapes were whole bunch pressed using a very low maceration press cycle and the resulting juice was cold settled, then racked to fermentation vessels. Half of the juice was inoculated in stainless steel using cultured yeast and the balance was filled into old French oak barriques, where it was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation.