Grower Website Seresin Region: New Zealand

Michael Seresin was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but left in the 1960s, when sheep, not grapevines, covered the Wairau Plains. He settled in Italy, where he was captivated by Italian food and wine culture and began his career as a cinematographer. Over time Michael’s interest in wine developed into a passion. In the early 1990s after investigating opportunities to start a winery in Italy, he became aware of the quality wines starting to emerge from his homeland. After visiting Marlborough, and falling in love with the Marlborough Sounds, Michael decided to purchase a home there, followed by the purchase of some land in the Wairau Valley, which became Seresin’s Home Vineyard. He began planting vines and imported Tuscan olive varieties immediately along with significant plantings of native plant species.

Seresin, one of the first wineries in New Zealand to operate organic vineyards, released their first vintage was in 1996 and the winery was completed in mid-2000. A year later, the Tatou Vineyard was purchased and land in the Omaka Valley was purchased for development into what is now the Raupo Creek Vineyard. Seresin won the Marlborough District Council’s 2009 Marlborough Environment Award.

In 2018, the Tatou vineyard and winery were sold to local NZ winemakers Ben Glover and Rhyan Wardman who was the inaugural assistant winemaker at Seresin. The wines continue to be made by winemaker Tamra Kelly-Washington at what was the original Seresin winery and is known today as The Coterie, a winemaking hub championing small-batch, single-site wines.

Winemaker Tamra Kelly-Washington graduated as a top scholar from Lincoln University with a degree in Viticulture and Oenology. She started out her career at Seresin Estate. After spending time making wine in the USA, Australia and Italy she headed back to her roots where it all started at Seresin Estate, joining the team in time for the 2018 harvest.

Working with viticulturist Cameron Vawter, a passionate advocate for biodynamic farming, their focus is spent on precise picking decisions, embracing acidity in order to guide pristine fruit through the winemaking process with minimal handling. The resulting wines are elegant, structured and a genuine reflection of their provenance.

VINEYARDS

Grapes from organic and biodynamic vineyards are handpicked and transformed into artisan wines through gentle, traditional winemaking..

Raupo Creek Vineyard:
The Raupo Creek vineyard is located at the foothills of the Omaka Valley. The clay rich soils of the 51 hectare vineyard are ideal for growing Pinot Noir. The land is also planted with Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Semillion, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Viognier. An additional 25 hectares are planted with olive groves and vegetable patches, and used for farmland and pasture.

Organic and biodynamic philosophies view the property as one holistic organism – the health of the estate depends upon the balance of all its individual parts. This harmonious approach to viticulture also plays a fundamental part in our company culture and the winemaking process.

The combination of aspect, elevation and close planted vines, coupled with clay rich slopes for concentrated pinot noir and finer sandy, silt-loam flats for the whites meant that as the vines matured, our winemakers coveted Raupo Creek fruit over all others.

Raupo Creek by Variety