Description
About Makipai Wines
Makipai Wines is a partnership between two good mates who needed an ongoing excuse to get together and chat about music (The Clash) and football (Newcastle United) at the boozer. The two friends are Andrew Hedley (former winemaker at Framingham, NZ) and James Johnston, a well-seasoned Sydney wine merchant. Andrew lovingly produces the wines with equal parts science, instinct, and Makipai madness. These limited drops aim to give brilliant quality at extremely reasonable prices – and boy, does it give.
Fruit comes from a slow-ripening single vineyard called Ward Farm, south of Awatere Valley. Soils are comprised of fine argillic-sodic-fragic pallic… hold the phone, what? Basically, it’s loess soil, the good stuff. The type of soil that retains heat, is porous and permeable, which is great for root penetration. On top of that, it’s nutrient-rich, making for super intense mineral wines.
But enough about the soils, here’s dirt on Andrew Hedley; he’s a PhD in organic chemistry, and while the winemaking is self-taught, rest assured the science is sound! And that sound is PUNK. Jancis Robinson describes Andrew as one of the ‘most skilled practitioners of Riesling anywhere in the world.’ So waste no time ‘getting lost in the market’; swoop in and get it while it’s hot!
