The 2023 growing season started with a warm spring, followed by a relatively cool, fertile summer, and ended with a warm, dry autumn. The initial vine growth was slightly behind schedule, providing an opportunity to manage the canopy effectively, improve fruit exposure, and help with disease prevention.

Vineyards showed great fertility, reflecting improved vine health. The season was relatively mild – perfect for allowing the grapes to ripen gently and evenly and show concentrated and distinctive flavours, particularly in the vineyards located in the Awatere Valley. The nature of this season allowed for optimal winemaking decisions.

David Clouston, Winemaker, has declared that this year’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties are exceptional. The Chardonnay has a bright acidity with great intensity and purity. The Sauvignon Blanc has powerful aromatics and distinctive flavours. The red varieties benefited from the late warmth in the season, resulting in very juicy and concentrated berries. Syrah is showing incredible vibrance and great potential. Pinot Noir is concentrated, with classic Marlborough wild berry aromatics and a ripe tannin profile.’It could be one of the best vintages since 2015′- David Clouston.

The Lexus Urban Polo returns to Hagley Park, Christchurch on Saturday 11 February, the Auckland Domain on Saturday 11 March, and for the first time ever, the Bay Oval in Tauranga will also host the event on Saturday 1 April 2023.

As proud wine sponsor of the Lexus Urban Polo since 2019, Harriet Wadworth of Two Rivers said, “Two Rivers will be back showcasing their wine to the elite polo world for another round of energy packed events, and we couldn’t be more excited.” After 2022 events were cancelled due to Covid-19, event organisers are in full preparation mode to make 2023 events better than ever.

The Lexus Urban Polo is the only polo event in the heart of the city, providing an unforgettable day of wine, music, fashion, food and sport. The field is considerably smaller than the traditional field meaning the action is never far away from the spectator.

Simon Wilson of the Lexus Urban Polo said, “The relationship with Two Rivers began over a bottle of their Isle of Beauty Rosé and the rest is history! They provide the perfect summer wine, and matched with our premium polo event, the combo makes for an experience like no other.”

Visit: http://www.urbanpolo.co.nz for more information.

As of writing this on the 24th March, all our chardonnay and rosé grapes are harvested and safely tucked away at The Wine Studio. Both, are looking fantastic – pure with lovely acidity.

Pinot noir is coming off nicely, especially blocks that ripened slightly later and missed February’s rains.

We are starting sauvignon blanc this week and while crops look to be slightly above average, the intensity of flavour and aromatics this year will be very good, due to great fertility in the vineyards and late summer rains.

Fingers crossed the weather plays its part for the next 3 weeks!

Two Rivers Founder and Winemaker David Clouston is ecstatic. He said “This is a massive achievement for us, especially in a year like this one, where the wine quality out there is exceptional. This award couldn’t have come at a better time, as New Zealand emerges from COVID-19 lockdown and the New World Wine Awards trophy offers an immediate and profound impacts on sales.”

Rated at 96 points the judges’ comments from the competition were glowing “Aromas and flavours of red capsicums and nectarine with a captivating creamy texture. Crisp acidity and great concentration with fruit weight flows through a long finish.”

Two Rivers Convergence Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is available at most New World supermarkets throughout New Zealand and online.

Visit: http://www.newworld.co.nz for more information.

After embarking on BioGro NZ organic conversion in 2020, no synthetic chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides are used in the vineyard.

Vineyard Manager Richard Hunter is hugely passionate about organic farming and is super excited to drive the seven hectare vineyard throughout the three year conversion process.

Founder and Winemaker David Clouston affectionately refers to Brookby Hill as “Our home vineyard. The soil type is windblown loess over clay and the entire site is high density planted. The micro-climate is unique with the northern aspect and steep slopes enabling us to ripen varieties not always achieved in Marlborough. It’s our grand cru vineyard so it deserves to be treated with the upmost care.”

Marketing Manager Naomi Galvin says “Brookby Hill is a stunning vineyard and like every vineyard, it is part of an ecosystem. We want to bring the vineyard back to life and we’re doing this by going organic and by planting native plants to increase biodiversity. Brookby Hill already produces such amazing wines and it doesn’t need much outside input to express itself. We want the vineyard to tell its story in an authentic way so going organic was a natural progression for us. Organics is the future, it’s the future of New Zealand winegrowing.”

Watch the Two Rivers ethos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFi9-3iYhT4&t=2s

To qualify for the Champion Export Wine Trophy, the wine must have won a gold medal at the show, be produced in a minimum volume of 500 cases and be exported to four or more countries.

This outstanding Trophy adds to the four gold medals Two Rivers Chardonnay 2017 has already won:
• New Zealand International Wine Show 2018 – GOLD
• Marlborough Wine Show 2018 – GOLD
• New Zealand Wine of the Year Awards 2018 – GOLD
• Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2019 – GOLD

Needless to say, Winemakers David Clouston and Sanna Stander were overjoyed to hear the news – Sanna was literally jumping for joy. “Winning the trophy has huge significance for us because we’re all so passionate about Chardonnay,” says winemaker David Clouston, “This was the first Two Rivers Chardonnay submitted to wine shows and having it come out with a trophy and four golds is hugely encouraging. Stylistically we know we’re on the right track and it’s such a privilege to be making the wine we love.”

For more information on the show visit: https://www.wineshow.co.nz/

Juliet Riesling 2018 has just won the Champion Riesling Trophy and Clos des Pierres Chardonnay 2017 has won a Gold Medal at the New Zealand International Wine Competition in the weekend.

This superb result has left the Two Rivers winemaking team buzzing. “It means so much because these two wines are given a great deal of attention in the vineyard and in the cellar and hold a very special place with all of us.” says Sanna Stander, Two Rivers Production Winemaker

The Juliet Riesling, named after founder and winemaker David Clouston’s mother, is a medium dry style. This delicate wine is clean and fresh, packed full of lemon honey and apricot notes.
The Clos des Pierre Chardonnay is a racy and delicious wine which is unfined and unfiltered to retain great character and depth of flavour.

The NZ International Wine Show judging team in 2018 was the most experienced ever assembled for a wine competition in New Zealand and was led by senior wine judge Bob Campbell MW. The Champions List and Trophies of the show were announced at a special awards dinner, held in Auckland on Saturday 13th October.

Initially focused on Sauvignon Blanc, Appellation Marlborough Wine (AMW) is an initiative comprised of 45 members.

Members must sign a licence agreement adhering to the following standards and quality parameters, declaring each wine submitted is:

• Made from 100% Marlborough grapes
• Made from 100% certified Sustainable Winegrower New Zealand vineyards
• Bottled in New Zealand
• Made only from grapes grown at the appropriate cropping level*

*Each year the organisation decides on an appropriate cropping level, expressed as tonnes of grapes per hectare.
If grapes used to produce the certified wine do not comply with the appropriate cropping level, then the winery may submit the wine with any necessary supporting evidence to the AMW wine tasting panel which at its absolute discretion may permit that wine to become certified.

Members can communicate their association by applying the AMW logo to labels and promotional material. Two Rivers is using the AMW logo on their Sauvignon Blanc back labels from the 2018 vintage onward.

An ideal flowering period was followed by the hottest January on record in Marlborough. All indicators were leading to a solid harvest with quality fruit and plentiful yields. Unfortunately Mother Nature took a turn for the worse and unleashed the wettest February on record – with Cyclone Gita causing the most damage.

These significant rain events, combined with unseasonal warm nights provided conditions for disease infection in our grapes.

All this lead to an early harvest. We picked our first block of Pinot Noir on the 14th March, two weeks early. Despite low sugar levels, the fruit flavours were intense and delicious, helped by low acids due to warm nights.

After a frantic and sometimes hectic four weeks, all of our grapes were safely tucked away in our new winery: The Wine Studio, by 11th April.

This early and rapid harvest made for an incredibly intense vintage, with most varieties ready to be picked at the same time. Fortunately most of our vineyards are planted on exceptional sites – this, aided with motivated staff, and having our own winery meant we were lucky enough to produce distinctive, quality wines in 2018.

“This was the perfect season to test out our new winery and the level of flexibility and control we had over the intake of our grapes was priceless.” notes Winemaker and Owner Dave Clouston.

After Dave Clouston established Two Rivers in 2004 and purchased his first vineyard, Brookby Hill, in 2016, he has now topped it off with a brand new, state of the art winery.

We broke ground on the 12th October 2017 and the winery was up and running on the 14th March 2018, the very same day vintage began – talk about cutting it fine! We’ve called it The Wine Studio and you can following the progress on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thewinestudionz/

The Wine Studio, situated between Marlborough’s two main valleys; The Wairau and Awatere, at Cloudy Bay Business Park, is still currently in phase one, allowing us to process approximately 500 tonne this harvest. Phase two will be completed in time for harvest 2019 and will bring our capacity up close to 1,200 tonnes.

“Having our own winery has given us more control over the winemaking process. It has enabled us to be more attuned to the wine, practice intuitive winemaking and be more reactive. It’s a super exciting time for Two Rivers.” notes Dave.

The Wine Studio will not only be the Two Rivers winemaking hub, it will also act as Two Rivers HQ. The team is excited to have a new home and be all housed together. The Wine Studio will also operate as a contract winemaking facility for a few of our close friends and we’re delighted to share the new facilities with likeminded winemakers from across our great region.