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.

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!

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