Pale straw color. With hints of cashew nuts, oyster shells, and sea breeze, it has the characteristics of a seaside vineyard. It has a fresh impression, with a lively acidity and complex flavors in perfect balance. Fresh lemon cream and subtle oak barrel flavors add richness to the wine, making it a delicious and refreshing wine. It was a very warm year with almost no frost in early spring. The summer was warm, but there were several rains after Christmas due to the La Niña phenomenon. Kidnappers Vineyard (Hawke's Bay)
Located on the coast of eastern Hawke's Bay, this land is known for New Zealand's most impressive geological wonders, with layered rock formations that are over 6 million years old. The soil is covered with clay loam. Although it receives plenty of sunshine, it is located very close to the sea, so the grapes ripen slowly due to the cool sea breezes. The layered rock formations and cool temperatures produce white wines with crisp acidity, sharp minerality and fresh grape flavors similar to those of Chablis in France. Founded in 1998, Craggy Range is a family-owned winery located in the foothills of Te Mata Peak, a premium wine producing area in Hawke's Bay on New Zealand's North Island. When Terry and Mary Peabody decided to start a winery with the aim of making world-class wines, they immediately visited New Zealand. The Peabody Family, who saw the future of New Zealand, focused on Gimlet Gravels in Hawke's Bay and Te Muna Road in Martinborough, and began winemaking with two aims: to produce a wine collection that represents this area and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's great wineries, and to leave a legacy for the family to continue in the future and to make it a winery that will last for 1000 years. These two areas have different soil types. Gimlet Gravels in Hawke's Bay has layers of Greywackestone, sand, and silt that are unique to this area, and the heat absorbed during the day keeps the fields warm at night, so this area is located in Hawke's Bay, which has a cool marine climate close to the sea, but the temperature is 2-3 degrees Celsius higher than other areas. Te Muna Road in Martinborough has 20,000-year-old alvi-fulvicsoil and pebbly limestone soils that contain complex minerals such as sedimentary rocks and volcanic ash, and these excellent vineyards produce wines with amazing aromas, purity and complexity. Craggy Range thus has unique terroir fields. They produce a variety of wine varieties, but they boast world-class quality, such as being in the Top 50 for five consecutive years from 2020 to 2024 in The World's Most Admired Wine Brands, and LeSol always receiving 95-97 points in Wine Advocate. It is also known for being the wedding venue for former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in January 2024, and the beautiful winery with its award-winning restaurant is attracting attention as one of New Zealand's leading destinations. For this wedding, Sauvignon Brante Muna Martinborough and Te Kahu Gimlet Gravels Vineyard Hawke's Bay were served. In recent years, the winery has been focusing on sustainability, and has welcomed a new organic cultivation specialist as its vineyard manager. The cultivation and winemaking teams work together to study the microorganisms that live in the fields and winery to elucidate the ecosystem, and research is being conducted to improve pruning techniques to improve the flow of sap in the wine trees and suppress disease. We are always thinking about how we can pass on the fields to the next generation in the best possible condition.
In 2020, they embarked on a project to increase biodiversity by replanting over 100 hectares of Martinborough vineyards with native vines, ultimately aiming to improve the quality of their land.