Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir 2025 - Special Case Offer

91 Points (4.5 Stars) - Sam Kim Wine Orbit, May 2026

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island & Brightwater vineyards
Date of Harvest: Mid-Late March 2025
pH of wine: 3.48
T.A of Wine: 4.9
Alcohol: 13.5%
Suitable for Vegetarians or Vegans: Yes

Our Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat, about 1.5km from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Māori kūmara (sweet potato) beds prior to European settlement in the early 1800s. The Māori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kūmara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are, however, very sandy and free-draining. The water table is relatively high, ensuring adequate underground
water.

Our Brightwater vineyard lies about 15km from the coast and is nestled under the Richmond Ranges on the southern end of the Waimea Plains. The soil is a combination of rocks and river boulders, which is hard on farm equipment but vital for holding the warmth of Nelson’s sun and ripening grapes. Low nutrient and water levels in the vineyard help to restrict plant vigour, producing fruit with lively, concentrated flavour. To further enhance aromatics, we remove leaves to allow light
penetration and air movement around the fruiting zone.

Our 2025 Seifried Pinot Noir comes from a blend of fruit from our Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyard, where all Pinot Noir vines are well over twenty years in age and are showing great maturity and depth of flavour.

Parcels of fruit were picked incrementally at both sites during March 2025 at the peak of flavour and ripeness. The de-stemmed fruit had a brief cold maceration period before individual parcels were inoculated for fermentation. Throughout fermentation plunging occurred twice daily and was tapered off to once daily as it completion. The young wine was drained to new, one and two-year-old French barriques for malolactic fermentation and barrel ageing. The wine was stabilised and bottled in February 2025.