Vidal Wines, founded in 1905, is one of Hawke's Bays oldest boutique wineries, and is a producer of premium quality wines that truly reflect the region and vineyards from which they were sourced.
Vidal Wines gained its name from its founder, Anthony Joseph Vidal. He was 22 years old when he arrived in New Zealand from Spain in 1888. He moved North to Hawke's Bay where in 1905 he purchased a small property in Hastings. Once the stables that occupied the site were converted into a cellar, Anthony set about planting some grapevines. Thereafter, success lead to expansion with further vineyard plantings in Te Awanga and then Te Mata.
Passing from family memebr to family member, the Vidal family made a decision to sell in the early 1970's and for a while the winery experienced some instability. This changed in 1976 when George Fistonich bought the winery and began to steadily restore the Vidal reputation as a quality wine producer.
The 2004 growing season got underway with some uncharacteristic late spring frosts. The cool start was followed by a warm early summer, damp January and long dry autumn. Cool evening temperatures ensured a lovely fruit lift to aromas and flavours combined with a fresh acidity. Careful vine canopy work was needed to allow a clean harvest with healthy and mature fruit. Generally, this was a typical late yielding season, with a combination of good sugar and flavour ripeness enhanced by a high natural acidity at harvest.
Once harvested the grapes were pressed gently and around 60 per cent of the juice run to barrel to undergo fermentation with the balance completed in tank. Around six months on stirred yeast lees are added for a rich creamy texture and increased palate weight as well as creating a balanced complexity. Around 30 per cent of this wine was then allowed to complete full malolactic fermentation in order to create a balance of flavour and add mouthfeel to the final blend.
A tropical Hawke's Bay Chardonnay with pineapple and peach aromas leading into a palate full of ripe fruit and creamy, nutty oak flavours..
