HALCYON DAYS Veil 2022 9.5% alc

Blend:  Sauvignon Blanc 83%, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir.

BioGro certified Organic, Osawa vineyard, Mangatahi subregion 

Te Matau a Māui~Hawke’s Bay

Veil: A special way to age wine….

Inspired by the great wines aged under a flor, a film or a “veil” of yeast that forms on the surface of wine left untouched in a not-quite-full oak barrel, our Veil is an experiment with a different way of aging our skin-fermented Sauvignon Blanc. After alcoholic and malolactic ferment, a portion of our 2022 Sauvignon was put into two old 260-litre barrels and left to age and evolve with a bit of air in the headspace of the barrel to see what would happen...

Needless to say, from Sherry to the Jura, we love these oxidative wine styles and we wanted to see what we could do here in Heretaunga. 

As in our previous bottling of Veil, we didn’t quite get a thick film on the surface of the wine, but we got a veil, which saved us having to change the label.

All grapes for this Veil come from the beautiful, certified organic, Osawa vineyard in the Mangatahi sub-region. Mangatahi  is situated on the southern alluvial river terraces of the Ngaruroro river. With a higher elevation than the Heretaunga plains, it is slightly cooler, with more influence from the Kaweka and Ruahine mountains to the west. The soils are sandy loam over alluvial gravels with ferrous content (referred to as “red metals” in Aotearoa).

Winemaking: handpicked, skin fermented, pressed to tank after 10 days on skins, malolactic in tank, rack to two barrels on ullage (not full), left for the veil to develop, aged under the veil 2.5 years, bottled 13/3/2025, one year in a bottle before release.  

Serve chilled.