Wither Hills Winery

Yvonne Lorkin viewing optical grape selector at Wither Hills

Visiting any winery can be like wine porn to the avid enthusiast, but seeing Wither Hills the latest in high tech berry selection was fantastic. Using the optical berry selector they are rejecting about 2-3 % of fruit picked, but in some years that figure can be as high as 4-5%.

State of the art gravity fed stainless steel fermenters are also on display. These fermenters are on stilts and provide winery staff with the ability to push a press underneath the tank for the skins. It’s wine on an industrial scale but the still manages to keep some of the charm and mystery of old world wine making, providing you’re accompanied by someone as passionate as the winemaker.
There’s little need for a pump to be used on the wine, a process that can cause unnecessary aeration to the wine, until bottling. So the finished wine is treated with gentle hands, or machines!

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Written by Jayson Bryant

Jayson’s roots in wine began when his father literally dragged him round France and injected his passion into him. From the age of 8 his family took month long holidays in France travelling through all regions and sampling their wine.
UnScrewed has reinvented the concept of wine tasting in New Zealand and along the way found a new and willing audience. In addition to encouraging straightforward wine tasting, Jayson educates viewers about the effects of regional factors (soil, sun, wind) on wine flavours, and how to buy wine.

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