DEFIANCE PROVES SUCCESSFUL FOR DOMAIN ROAD

AWARD-WINNING DOMAIN Road Vineyard wines are produced from two vineyards in Bannockburn Central Otago - owned and run by Graeme and Gillian Crosbie who lived in the area since the 1980’s and finally entered the wine industry in 2002 after a long love affair with wine.

The home vineyard on Domain Road was previously an apricot orchard. As it was only a few hundred metres from his house, Graeme recognised its potential quickly. It was situated in a small valley giving it a warm and more sheltered microclimate in what is already a hot area of Central Otago. Early vintages showed great potential with the 2007 Pinot Noir gaining multiple gold medals, something that has continued with subsequent vintages.

The focus has always been on the vineyard with an emphasis on wines being grown rather than made. With this in mind, the global financial crisis a decade ago was seen as a great opportunity to expand on the 6.5 hectares of vines on Domain Road. The search was kept to the Bannockburn area and a site on Felton Road was identified as being the best available. Given the name ‘Defiance’, the vineyard was planted in 2012.

During 2013 Fiona Johnman came on board as the Domain Road vineyard manager and continues to lead a small team in the vineyard. No two seasons are the same so a need to focus on what the season brings, and manage accordingly, with attention to detail and a lot of plain old hard work being the key.

The new vineyard presented an opportunity to plant Chardonnay grapes, so after mapping the vineyard soils, land was allocated to each variety with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay getting the best available. Graeme didn’t want to follow what everyone else was doing with Chardonnay in Central Otago so some different clones were selected with a small area of land left to plant out later to provide balance if needed. Pinot Noir also received the addition of three more clones to provide more depth and choice for the wines.

Having the two vineyards gave Domain Road the perfect opportunity to showcase different Pinot Noir wines and the Defiance single vineyard Pinot Noir was added to the Paradise Single Vineyard (from Domain Road) and the Bannockburn Pinot Noir (a blend of both vineyards) in 2016.

Winemaking is a hands off approach, with Peter Bartle the winemaker preferring to let the wines make themselves as much as he can. Peter says the long slow ripening that Domain Road achieves on both vineyards allows for perfect timing of the harvest decisions and the quality of the grapes that Fiona and her team deliver helps with letting the wines develop in their own time. This is coupled with extra time ageing the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines before release, a deliberate move to allow the wines to achieve better balance.

In 2016 Domain Road opened a cellar door on the Defiance vineyard, 263 Felton Road. Open 7 days it has been a great success with visitors enjoying a range of wines on taste every day.