The ‘Greenough Vineyards’ label of Andrew Greenhough and Jenny Wheeler is regarded as one of the Nelson district’s best. Coming from Auckland in 1990, Andrew and Jenny purchased a 4 ha property on Paton Road in Hope with some established vines planted in the 1970s. Andrew and Jenny recognised the importance of these old vines, building up their health and expanding the plantings to varieties deemed suitable to the land and the region. Nowadays, the ‘Hope’ vineyard is 9 ha, planted to Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, along with some Pinot Blanc and Gewurztraminer. The old vines are ungrafted. Andrew and Jenny also draw fruit from the neighbouring ‘Morison’ vineyard, its 4 ha of vines established in 2000 by them. Though not owners of this vineyard, they have managed it continuously from the start, sourcing the fruit on a lease basis. It has Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir planted. Both vineyards are certified BioGro organic.
The Greenhough annual production of up to 7,500 cases of wine puts them in the boutique or small winemaker category, and as intimated above, the quality is very high. The flagship wines are labelled ‘Hope Vineyard’ and are made from selections of fruit, usually from the oldest vines, and the output is only 1,000 cases in total. The Greenhough ‘Nelson’ wines are made from fruit from both the ‘Hope’ and ‘Morison’ vineyard together. Andrew and Jenny have Cameron Trott as their winemaker, a title that no doubt does little justice to what his work entails in the vineyard and winery. Here, I review the ‘Hope Vineyard’ 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, 2016 Chardonnay and 2014 Riesling. www.greenhough.co.nz
