Lake Chalice Encapsulates Taste of Wairau Valley with Champion Riesling
Lake Chalice Encapsulates Taste of Wairau Valley with Champion Riesling
Image: Richard Briggs Photography
Marlborough’s Lower Wairau Valley captured the tastes of judges when it came to Riesling at the 2022 Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect.
The category saw growth this year, with 22 entries, but only three gold medals awarded.
Lake Chalice’s The Falcon Riesling 2021 was the pick of the bunch, winning the De Sangosse Champion Riesling trophy at the show.
Winemaker Chloe Gabrielsen says being able to showcase Riesling from one specific subregion makes the wine special.
“You’re really able to drill down and pinpoint flavour profiles from one small area in Marlborough, how neat is that?,” she says.
The wine in question is from Walsh Vineyard in the Woodbourne area, and Doctor’s Creek from the Burleigh area. Made using a long, cool controlled fermentation process, it boasts citrus notes of ripe lemon on the nose, white orange blossom and soft florals with highlights of juicy mandarin in the background.
The palate is fresh and inviting, rich and rounded with fragrant ripe limes and lemon zest.
“I think the Marlborough region and its favourable growing conditions means that so many of our grape varieties can flourish as we explore, learn and understand our unique subregions,” Chloe says.
“Our cooler growing conditions allow us to target a fresh citrus flavour spectrum and we are able to retain enough acid to allow flexibility in the type of style we aim to produce.”
To receive the Riesling trophy at the Show was a welcome recognition.
“It feels good,” Chloe says. “As it’s a wine we are very proud of and to be recognised by the panel of judges with a gold, followed up with the trophy is pretty neat.”
Trophy sponsor, De Sangosse New Zealand has been involved with the Show since its inception more than 10 years ago.
De Sangosse NZ Business Manager Stu Miller says sponsoring a trophy at the show was a way for them to further support the industry they work so hard to support daily.
“We have always been a sponsor and will continue to be. When we got involved, we wanted to support local, and even better, support the wine industry in itself,” he says.
Specialising in crop protection and plant nutrition, De Sangosse New Zealand aims to lead the way when it comes to innovative sought-after solutions for the winey industry.
Leveraging their large product ranges and companies under the De Sangosse SAS umbrella, they are well positioned to support an exciting and growing industry.
Recently, the company has been working on specialised bio crop protection products and biofertilizers using mycorrhizae fungi, on top of their industry-leading slug and snail baits.
On the whole, the Marlborough wine industry is increasingly looking toward more sustainable plant nutrition products, which De Sangosse NZ is providing, Stu says.
“We’re creating softer crop protectants that don’t have the harsh chemicals of traditional products,” he says.
“We’re placing innovation and investment into new products and ranges and we have a commitment to better, safer products without lack of efficacy; they are just as good as conventional products.”
To sponsor the Riseling trophy is fitting for Stu, who not only enjoys the variety and loves to see the region shine with its less widely-known wines.
“It’s one of my personal favourites, I enjoy a riesling and I think it’s an unsung variety here in Marlborough; we grow good riesling!” he says.