Vineyard
The Rimu Grove Home Vineyard was planted in 1995 and comprises 7 hectares of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris vines laid out on the gentle north facing slope of the Bronte Peninsula overlooking the Waimea Inlet. Nelson has New Zealand’s highest sunshine hours and this fact, coupled with our temperate maritime microclimate and the ancient glacial gravels of the Moutere Clays, all contribute to making this the beloved home of our 20,000 precious vines.
Our vineyard is meticulously hand-maintained and our vines are pampered and spoilt in royal fashion. We prune back to either a single or double cane in the winter, shoot-thin in the spring, crop-thin and leaf pluck by hand in January, we net the vineyard in February and harvest by hand usually around about early April each year.
We love and respect our vines and the gorgeous grapes they produce for us, but there is also a whole lot of hard work involved. Our loyal locals who come back year after year, along with a constant stream of young travellers passing through the beautiful Nelson region provide us with an ever changing kaleidoscope of faces in our seasonal crews out on the vineyard. It’s their energy, humour and hard work that make it all possible. Handball tournaments down at the winery, water gun fights in the vineyard and the Nelson region’s spectacular microbreweries all help us stay focused and true to our vineyard philosophy – happy workers make happy wine.
