Aitken's Folly Vineyard

About Winery and Wines

Ours is a small 3ha vineyard on the outskirts of Wanaka, Central Otago. The vines were planted in 2009 on a relatively flat site. Row spacing is 2.4m and vine spacing 1.5m giving a total of 2500 vines/ha. One quarter of the vineyard is planted in Chardonnay clone 548, one of the fantastic chardonnay clones which made Corton Charlemagne great. These vines occupy the southeastern corner of the site in probably the warmest corner of the vineyard. The remaining 5400 vines are evenly split between the Pinot Noir clones Abel, 667 and 5. The vineyard has been managed sustainably since planting and our ethos is to move towards organic growing and carbon neutrality with time, with CarboNZero certification the first in our sights. The soils are young in geological terms and reflect their very recent deposition by glacial rivers and streams. Even on such a small, visually similar site, we see variable concentrations of river pebbles and stones, all of which affect the soils water holding capacity and hence vine growth and give variablity to the grapes.