Craggy Range

Many equate the name Craggy Range only with the Hawkes Bay.  With their fantastic stable of Hawke’s Bay wines and beautiful Giants Winery this can be forgiven! However, there is much more to the Craggy Range story. With their own vineyards in Hawkes Bay, Martinborough and Marlborough and grapes sourced from one of the finest vineyards in Central Otago the vision for Craggy Range is to craft wines of excellence expressing the best of classic grape varieties and single vineyards. The Craggy Range vision is one of passion and belief in the wines of New Zealand acknowledging the very special characteristics of our wine growing regions. 

The Craggy Range “Family Collection” of wines includes a trio single vineyard wines from their Te Muna Road vineyard in Martinborough. 

The tantalising 2011 Te Muna Riesling, deliciously fragrant with intense mandarin & citrus blossom aromas, a sherbet like palate of finely balanced acidity and 9 grams of residual sugar yields a lovely lovely off -dry style for pre or at the dinner table. The very long and lingering intensity of flavour promises great drinking for the next 2-3 years at least. 

Unquestionably sauvignon! The 2011 Te Muna Sauvignon rings with lovely tropical notes of passionfruit and surges with concentration and  breadth of flavour on the palate. Very typical of the Martinborough style being flavour rich and so easy to enjoy on its own. Perfectly paired with seafood from the shell.  

Finally the refined 2010 Te Muna Pinot noir has all that is great about pinot. Lifted aroma of cherry, cured ham with a warm five spice aroma melted into the background. The silken feel, complexity and powerful flavour without sheer force of fruit and tannin speaks with the charm of pinot. Supple, elegant, harmonious and definitely fine wine. 

What more can we say? Quite simply if the wines weren’t better than excellent they wouldn’t be good enough to be Craggy Range.

Craggy Range like most Martinborough producers are looking ahead to a lighter crop in 2012. So it is a good time to buy wines from the 2010 and 2011 vintages as these wines are sought after.