Experience the vibrant flavours of Framingham F-Series Old Vine Riesling. On the nose, you'll notice hints of orange peel and lemon zest, along with savoury notes and a touch of wet stone minerality. The palate boasts exotic fruit flavours, a smooth delicate texture, and a lingering, refreshing finish. Ideal for seafood, especially crab.

About the Producer

The Framingham label was launched in 1994 with one Riesling, and has since expanded to include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. Framingham produces wines from their 19.5 hectare estate vineyard (certified organic since 2014) and other selected sites. Their Riesling vines, planted in 1981, are among the oldest in Marlborough. Andrew Brown joined Framingham as head winemaker in January 2020, replacing Dr Andrew Hedley, who resigned from his role after 18 years at the helm. A highly regarded winemaker, Brown previously spent seven years at Framingham as assistant winemaker and understudy to Andrew Hedley before working as consultant in regions including Oregon, Central Otago and Alsace. One of Brown's Rieslings won the Champion Riesling Trophy at the New Zealand International Wine Show in 2019; a fitting accolade from someone taking the reins at Framingham, who have always been renowned for their Rieslings.

Vineyard and Winery

Grapes for the F-Series Old Vine Riesling were organically grown, on a single vineyard planted over 40 years ago in Renwick, Marlborough. Soils are composed of fist sized greywacke stones (a hard, dark type of sandstone streaked with quartz and feldspar) mixed with alluvial gravel and silt. Vineyard practice for this wine is geared to produce ripe grapes that have had the maximum hang time on the vine to develop concentrated and vivid flavours. The vines are trained on a two-cane Guyot trellis system with vertical shoot positioning and are naturally low yielding, producing small crops of intensely flavoured grapes. All harvesting is done by hand.

Fruit was all hand harvested. 90% was immediately whole bunch pressed to tank, settled for 6hrs and then run to Acacia barrel for spontaneous fermentation. The remainder (10%) was destemmed and went through partial fermentation on skins prior to being pressed off to ceramic jars to complete ferment. The various components were then left un-sulphured on full ferment lees for 10 months before being blended and bottled.