“The Cadenza” – Late Harvest Gewürztraminer 2025

The Cadenza is an ornamental musical passage usually performed by a soloist at the end of an aria or piece of music. Often improvised but always elaborate, this final flourish is meant to impress!

2025 Vintage

“This sweet late harvest style entices with aromas of grilled oranges, pink grapefruit and spice, and the palate has a baked-apple richness and lingering notes of dried fruits and ginger..” Olly Masters (Winemaker)

Vintage Notes

A cool wet start to the season provided good moisture for early season growth. On the 3rd November, we experienced our 2nd frost in over 20 years! It impacted just certain blocks including the Gewurztraminer for this wine but it occurred prior to shoot thinning so we could mitigate losses. The rain eased and flowering and fruit set went well but we did have relentless spring winds lasting into January. The rest of the season was ideal without any super-hot days, so we retained good acidity and freshness in the white varieties. Vineyard vigilance ensured no incidence of disease and with leaf-plucking we ensured good ripening in this overall cooler season. We achieved excellent sugar levels and great varietal expression in the fruit for this late harvest wine. The main harvest finished on 11th April, but we handpicked the fruit for this wine on the 4th & 5th June at 1.7 T/h. Growing Degree Days (GDDs) were 1040.

Food Match

This late-harvest style of Gewürztraminer is a perfect match to fruit-based desserts especially those with apricots, peaches, pears or lychees. It’s also a great match with strongly-flavoured soft cheeses. For savoury matches, try foie gras or any mild curries featuring ginger, cinnamon or lychee flavours.

Details

Winemaking

For the second year in a row a spring frost resulted in damage to the typical vineyard parcel for this wine but the remaining lower cropping fruit again achieved good sugar levels (30 Brix). The fruit was gently crushed and left to soak for 1 day in bins to maximise flavour and sugar extraction from the desiccated fruit. The juice was settled clear and inoculated and then cool tank fermented (~15-17°C) with commercial yeast in order to retain varietal freshness. The ferment was then halted by chilling at what was determined to be the optimum residual sugar level (174 g/l).