Established in 1989, the Kennedys Road Vineyard or 'Home Block', is the initial land purchase on Kennedys Road. Here you will find the winery, barrel hall, offices, Geoff and Robina's home, olive groves and a 55 acre vineyard growing Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Gruner Veltliner, and Malbec. Omaka Springs Estates was officially established in 1992. Our first commercial vintage was released in 1994.
In 1995, 92 acres of exceptional land was purchased at Falveys Road, still in the Omaka Valley and only 2 kms from the Home Block. The vineyard has slowly been increased to 125 acres. This land was planted with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Malbec, Syrah, Viognier and olive groves. Here is also where you will find the Estates root stock nursery.
At Omaka Springs Estates we are dedicated to a proactive environmental management system that enables the production of high quality wine by employing environmentally responsible and economically viable processes in vineyards and winery. Click here to find out more about our sustainable practices.
Our Barrel Hall provides a sheltered environment for wines to peacefully mature in French and American Oak barriques. Our state of the art Tank Farm has stainless steel storage capacity of over 320,000 litres. Our current total production of both red and white wines is closer to 200,000 litres.
Our olive groves are scattered all around both the Kennedys Road and Falveys Road blocks. They add a nice dimension to the estate and, in addition to the lovely oil they produce, they are a very integral part of our sustainability commitment.
Harvest is always an exciting time of the year. It is great to gather friends and family to help pick the plump, juicy bunches from the vines. At Omaka Springs, we own our own grape harvester, (a pretty hefty investment for our small company, but worth it) - thus when we are not hand-selecting, we still have excellent control over the timing and quality of our picking.
Ian Marchant uses minimalistic techniques allowing the grapes to show their own identity as he crafts the wines. This starts with the grapes being picked when they are organoleptically ripe - which may not be necessarily sugar ripe. The grapes are then crushed and pressed within 20 minutes of harvest to retain as much of the aromatics as possible.
Neutral yeast is used for fermentation; again this allows the grapes to show their true flavours. Then, with little intervention, the wine is fined and filtered for bottling. What Ian aims to achieve, is the characteristics of the terroir with his wines, and what makes the Southern Valleys area of Marlborough a magical place to produce wine.