Stunning organic Syrah

Cambridge Road

In 2006, after spending years traveling the globe making wine, sailing, and building ships, Lance Redgwell and his family purchased the Cambridge Road property in Martinborough, New Zealand. The vineyard has Pinot Noir and Syrah planted in 1986 that has been organically farmed since the 90s, a rarity in this part of New Zealand. In 2010 they built their winery and since then Cambridge Road has been known as a leader in naturally made, terroir-driven wines in the area. Currently, they have 4 acres of Pinot Noir and 1.5 acres of Syrah and are double planting the vineyard to increase plant density. They also buy fruit from their friends and neighbors with the general philosophy to only buy organic fruit from within 30 kilometers of the winery. They do this in order to keep their environmental footprint as small as possible.

Lance has always practiced Biodynamics with dense plantings of cover crops between the rows and a healthy living ecosystem surrounding all the estate vineyards. Full Biodynamic preparations are used in the vineyard and the lunar cycles are closely followed. The vines are dry farmed, harvests are by hand and the winemaking is incredibly hands-off, often with no sulfur used at all. After harvest, the grapes are cooled overnight before being destemmed and transferred to tank by gravity. An ambient cool maceration process then takes place for up to five days, when fermentation starts with indigenous yeasts.

Martinborough has a challenging but rewarding climate. Winters are often damp and cold, spring sees extreme winds, summer is hot and dry and autumns can be difficult. The Pacific Ocean and the alps of the southern island lie just over the hills and mountains that the vineyard is surrounded by. Autumn nights are cool resulting in wines with structure, finesse, and tight acidity. Soils consist mostly of wind-blown loess overlaying silts, gravels, and ancient river stones interspersed in places with clay. Cambridge Road is part of the Martinborough Terrace Appellation