Black Cottage Wines Marlborough

Black Cottage Wines

Marlborough – New Zealand

A globetrotter returns to Marlborough

Winemaker David Clouston worked for several years at wineries in the United States, France, Spain and Chile before returning to his native Marlborough. There he lives in a black-painted wooden cottage in the Wairau Valley, along the Opawa River and nestled among vineyards, native plantings, olive trees and a cricket ground. Here, founder Dave and winemaker Sanna Stander use the black cottage to welcome international guests and friends. The days are spent playing cricket, shooting clay pigeons, grilling fresh fish and drinking delicious wine.

Sustainability and vegan friendliness

As a family-run winery, Black Cottage Wines attaches great importance to sustainable management. Everyone in the team sees themselves as guardians of the land and is very committed to promoting biodiversity, increasing habitat for native birds and improving soil health. The winery is part of the Sustainable Winegrowers New Zealand program. And as part of this, a planting program has been launched in which over 1000 native plants are planted on the banks of the Opawa River. In wine production, environmentally friendly, lightweight bottles are used to reduce carbon emissions. With the beginning of this year, the entire wine range of Black Cottage is vegan-friendly, which means that the use of animal protein in wine production is completely dispensed with.

Passion and traditional craftsmanship

The pigeons for the white wines are harvested at sunrise and slowly pressed to the classic
Marlborough fruit character. Selected yeasts are used and the wines are stored on the fine yeast for about 3 months to achieve body and complexity. The white wines offer clarity, fresh, ripe fruit and a certain playfulness. All red wines are harvested according to physiological maturity, that is, when the grapes taste perfect. After hand sorting, they are gently destemmed, followed by cold maceration, which lasts 3-4 days. The fermentation takes place in small vats and the ageing of the wine in a combination of new and used French oak barrels. In creating the Black Cottage Pinot Noir, David relies on traditional crafts from Europe and extracts just enough tannin for a good structure. This gives it a delicate, beguiling fruit and a smooth, silky texture. The Black Cottage red wines offer depth, elegance and finesse.

The wines of Black cottage Wines