23-Dec-2014
International winemaking experience led Brian Bicknell to set up Mahi Wines with his wife Nicola in Marlborough yielding their first vintage in 2001. They are proponents of elegance, textures and minimal intervention, crafting wines to accompany food. Making Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Brian makes is clear that Chardonnay is favourite with the team at Mahi, requiring much tasting from barrel in the winery and from bottle at the tasting room. The winemaking for all three Chardonnay bottlings is essentially the same: hand-picking and sorting the fruit, WBP, and indigenous yeast high solids barrel-fermentation, the wines barrel-aged on lees. To preserve elegance, only a small portion of the wine undergoes MLF. So the differences between the wines are due primarily to vineyard source. Here, I review the 2013 Marlborough bottling, and the 2012 ‘Alchemy’ and ‘Twin Valleys’ wines. www.mahiwine.co.nz
