The Stonyridge Larose is one of the top Bordeaux-style reds in the world - an immensely complex wine of great ripeness. The flagship wine of the Stonyridge Winery, the grapes are estate grown in organic vineyards on Waiheke Island, New Zealand.

Stonyridge Vineyard was conceived and operated with the sole intention of making world-class Bordeaux-style red wine. This classic Cabernet-dominant blend is named Larose as a tribute to the rose, the most aromatic, colourful, intense, and beautiful of all flowers.

The vineyard site was chosen specifically to produce this style of wine. The gentle north-facing slopes of the vineyard are sheltered from the cold southwesterly winds by the ridge which gives the vineyard its name. Summer temperatures regularly reach over 30°C with the highest temperature being 36°C. Combined with north-facing rows and excellent viticulture, the grapes achieve perfect ripeness in normal years.

Typical yields at Stonyridge are as low as 20 hectoliters/hectare (2 tonnes/acre). The grapes are hand-picked and immediately taken to the winery, where they are crushed, de-stemmed, and pumped into stainless-steel fermentation tanks. A warm fermentation is followed by a two-week maceration before being basket-pressed.

Malolactic fermentation is completed in barrel in the warmed chai (barrel cellar). The wine is 100% oak-aged in French and American barriques for over a year, racked regularly, rarely fined, and never filtered.

"For its arresting power, complexity and richness, and sheer vintage-to-vintage brilliance, Stonyridge Larose must be ranked as New Zealand's greatest claret-style red."

Michael Cooper, Wine Atlas of New Zealand 2003

Source: Stonyridge