Nautilus Albarino, Marlborough

Description

Nautilus Albarino is a white wine from the Marlborough wine-growing region. The Albarino grape, originally from Galicia in northwest Spain, is still not planted in large quantities in New Zealand. Plantings are increasing, and a few producers, including Nautilus Estate and Te Awa, are making some great wines with it.

Nautilus Estate was founded in 1985 by the Hill-Smith Family and remains family-owned today. Hill-Smith Family Vineyards have been making wine in Australia for over 165 years. Yalumba Estate in the Barossa was founded in 1849 by the current owner, Robert Hill-Smith’s, great-grandfather. Today they have many vineyards and brands throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Nautilus Estate has remained true to its mantra of never being the biggest but always striving for the best. Recognising the winemaking complexities of the inspiring but sometimes infuriating Pinot Noir grape, Nautilus built two separate wineries; The Nautilus Pinot Cellar, built in 2000 to handle Pinot as gently as possible, and the Nautilus White Winery built in 2006, dedicated to crafting cool climate varieties like Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Grüner Veltliner. The Pinot Noir Cellar is gravity-fed to handle the Pinot Noir grapes as gently as possible allowing the full expression of the grapes’ natural intense flavours and aromas. The estate consists of 173 acres of vineyard (in Wairau, Awatere and Southern Valleys) and the winemaker is Clive Jones.

The grapes for the Nautilus Albarino come from a small 1.37 hectare plot of vines in the estate’s Renwick vineyard. The vineyard was the estate’s first vineyard, purchased in 1992. It is located in the heart of the Wairau Valley on State Highway 6 at an altitude of 40 metres above sea level. It is planted on classic stony ‘Rapaura’ soils and is 7 hectares planted with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Albarino. The Albarino was planted between 2010 and 2019. The fruit was machine picked, using a destemming harvester before being crushed before pressing. The racked and clarified juice was then cool fermented in a stainless steel tank using an aromatic yeast. A short period of maturation on yeast lees followed before bottling.

This wine is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.