Passion Project: Chardonnay Legend at Kumeu River
"At the top end, New Zealand Chardonnay has never been better."
After all, the company has made its name as a specialist chardonnay producer. The 2015 Orange Label Chardonnay is one of six different Hawke's Bay Chardonnays Sacred Hill produces.
The Sacred Hill range includes three premium Special Selection Chardonnay Collection wines (Riflemans, Wine Thief and Virgin) as well as HALO Chardonnay and Reserve Chardonnay — something they certainly would not have envisaged when Sacred Hill was founded three decades ago.
Current managing director David Mason started the winery in the mid-1980s with his brother Mark and their winemaking friend Tony Bish (now senior winemaker) on the Mason family farm in Hawke's Bay picturesque Dartmoor Valley.
Sacred Hill is now one of New Zealand's largest privately owned wine producers, making more than 350,000 cases a year and exporting to more than 30 countries.
This success belies its humble beginnings. The Masons' father Ian was one of the first Hawke's Bay farmers to diversify from traditional sheep and cattle farming and plant grapes. Having decided to have a go at making their own wine, David and Mark came up with the Sacred Hill name, a play on Puketapu (Sacred Hill in Maori), a small village close to the farm.
Their first vintage was 350 cases of 1986 Fume Blanc. It sold out. So did the next vintage of 700 cases. It was then that the boys thought they may be on to something.
At the time, the boys believed they were mostly making wine for themselves, only selling the rest to fund their passion for fine wine.
"The early days were precious times picnicking by the river with friends and family and Sacred Hill remains true to those roots today. We have always been about making great wines to share and we always will be," Mason says.
He says the 2015 wines, which will carry a commemorative 30th vintage sticker, are still made in that tradition.
The 2015 vintage saw superb growing conditions in Hawke's Bay for the third year in a row with the renowned Rifleman's Vineyard producing exceptional Chardonnay. For the Orange Label wine, the fruit was harvested gently and transferred to the press without crushing. It was fermented with French oak and underwent regular lees stirring to enhance palate weight and richness.
2015 Sacred Hill Orange Label Hawke's Bay Chardonnay is described by Sacred Hill as having an attractive straw colour, an aroma of ripe stone fruit, orange rind fragrance and nutty complexity. They say the palette has a rich core of ripe stone fruit and a soft textured palate line. "Rich and tasty."
2015 Sacred Hill Orange Label Hawke's Bay Chardonnay is available from supermarkets throughout New Zealand and has a recommended retail price of $19.99.
