Vineyards

Churton’s Vineyards

Grapes are sourced primarily from our home block in the Waihopai Valley where the mature blocks are currently in conversion to organic status with Biogro. We have also worked with Barrow’s vineyard located at the confluence of the Wairau and Waihopai Valleys. Both the Waihopai Slopes Vineyard and Barrow’s Vineyard are accredited vineyards with Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand. (SWNZ).

As a region, Marlborough benefits from a long cool growing season and has free draining soils. It is protected from adverse weather conditions by mountain ranges to the South, West and North and is bounded by the sea to the East. In a cool climate like that of Marlborough, it is essential to ensure very good vineyard management. This involves working closely with the soil and the entire site as well as the vines themselves. Soil management is a key element in organic vineyard management. Learn about Biodynamics at Churton.

With the vines, we aim for open canopies and well balanced vines with limited grape yields. Our yields for both Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are strictly limited to the extent that we shoot thin early in the season and then later on will crop thin.

Click here for a vineyard plan.

Waihopai Slopes Vineyard

This is the home vineyard. The vineyard sits 200m above sea level on a spectacular Northeast-facing ridge between the Waihopai and Omaka valleys in the Southern Valleys area of the Wairau plain.

This site allows for minimum water usage as the hills in this region are composed of clay like material called loess that has very high water holding capacity. The wine from each block is kept separate and to date The Abyss block is our best performing block
– it was first planted in 2000 and according to Claude Bourguignone, the French soil scientist is not dissimilar in characteristics to Romanée Conti.

Early wine making results are proving that this vineyard site will produce outstanding wine. Our first vintage from this vineyard in 2003 produced fruit with intense concentration and very fine mature tannins and great length.

Vineyard Philosophy

We are very much advocates of making “vins de terroir” not “vins de technique. We want the Churton wines to be a true reflection of their organic origins. We are in organic conversion with Biogro in our mature blocks (10 hectares) and will introduce the young blocks over the next two years. Eventually the entire 25 hectare vineyard in the Waihopai Valley will be fully organic.

Our vineyard philosophy starts with the health of the soil.

As a microbiologist by training Sam’s inclination is to increase soil bio diversity and encourage microbial activity in the soil. This takes the place of using artificial fertiliser. Making compost is one of the key elements of this and is an incredibly satisfying and creative time in the vineyard. A good compost heap is simply a big bioreactor that is used for generating the greatest population of a diverse range of micro-organisms principally bacteria and fungi. Once grown these are inoculated into the vineyard soil improving the breakdown of organic matter and helping the vines absorb the available nutrients. It almost makes Sam salivate when he thinks of the benefits!