CAMBRIDGE ROAD
Lance Redgwell, the proprietor of Cambridge Road, is quite a character. He’s intense, opinionated, focused, tall, and maybe just a bit brash. After hearing stories about him from Alex Craighead (Kindeli), I knew I had to meet him and taste his wines. Right off the hop, a small group of friends and I were blown away by the electricity in each of his wines. Despite his looming presence, his wines are ethereal, and light handed.
His small 3ha vineyard was planted in 1986 in Martinborough, just north of Wellington. This southern extremity of New Zealand’s north island is ideal for ripening cool climate grape varieties, ranging from Pinot Noir to Riesling. He farms organically and uses the biodynamic practices he can justify. Between the vines you’ll find a thick blanket of nurturing cover crops. He farms without irrigation, which is shockingly rare in this area. To expand his portfolio, he purchases a small amount of fruit from nearby organic farmers.
In the winery he works as gently as he can with the fruit. He employs a lot of skin contact for while grapes, whole clusters for red grapes, and minimal sulphur. His earliest vintages show hints of new oak, but now everything is aged in well-seasoned, neutral vessels. They are all bottled unfined, and unfiltered. This truly is raw New Zealand fruit!
2018 ESTATE PINOT NOIR
Lance farms his own small vineyard in Martinborough. He uses biodynamic practices and relentlessly pursues balance. The Pinot Noir vines are now over 30 years old and are comprised of the following clones: CL5, Abel, CL6, 114, 667, and 115. This is his first vintage focusing on whole-cluster fermentation. It then spends twelve months in old barrel and an additional six month in tank before bottling. He used extremely low levels of sulphur in this wine (12ppm). Only 164 cases produced in this vintage. 13% ABV
2017 PAPILLON NOIR
This wine is made from Syrah (75%) and Pinot Noir (25%) from the vineyard Lance farms himself in Martinborough. The grapes are partially destemmed before fermenting in open top tank. After twelve days on skins the wine is pressed off into neutral barrels for an additional ten months. 11.8% ABV
2018 PAPILLON BLANC
The bulk of this cuvée is Riesling (46%) and Pinot Gris (22%) from Cirrus Vineyard. The remainder is made from a combination of Chardonnay (15%), Pinot Noir (14%) and Pinot Meunier (3%) from Cambridge Road, Grava and Lime Gully vineyards. The grapes are all direct pressed into tank where the juice settles overnight and then is racked. This clean juice is then wild fermented until it has just a pinch of residual sugar left. The wine is then chilled, racked again, and eventually bottled. Fermentation resumes in the spring as the winery heats up resulting in a gently sparkling wine. This wine has no added sulphur. 13.5% ABV