Greywacke is the Marlborough label of former Cloudy Bay winemaker Kevin Judd, where he presided over that company’s first 25 vintages establishing the reputation that it has today. The name Greywacke was adopted by Kevin and his wife Kimberley for their first Marlborough vineyard in Rapaura, named in recognition of the high prevalence of rounded greywacke river stones in the soils of the vineyard. Kevin registered the name back in 1992 with the vague notion that he might one day want to use it on a wine label of his own.
Fruit was sourced from various prime vineyard sites in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains with a portion of the juice fermented in old oak barrels.
Harvested largely by machine during cool (often cold) night-time conditions, the sauvignon blanc grapes were picked at ideal ripeness over a 16-day period, commencing 27 March. Transported directly to our winery in the Omaka Valley, fruit was lightly pressed to yield a modest volume of high-quality juice. The juice was cold-settled and racked prior to fermentation, which was primarily carried out in stainless steel tanks with cultured yeast. All individual vineyard batches were left on lees until late June, when the blend was assembled. The wine was bottled in early August with alcohol 13.4%, pH 3.22 and acidity 6.8 g/l.