Nautilus Estate

About Winery and Wines

Nautilus is unusual in effectively having two wineries side by side. The first was built in 2000 and is dedicated to the inspiring but sometimes infuriating grape that is Pinot Noir. Its construction was quite radical in Marlborough at the time (this was back before the Sideways movie made Pinot Noir’s popularity skyrocket) and we believe it was the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Using the principles of gravity flow, this facility allows us to handle Pinot Noir grapes as gently as possible in order to allow the natural intense flavours and aromas – the expression of the different vineyards – to come to the fore. The harvested fruit passes through a destemmer mounted on rails directly into the tanks. This avoids using a must pump which can bruise the fruit and release bitter phenolic compounds. When one tank is filled the destemmer is positioned over the next. However we do experiment with some whole bunches in some of our parcels of pinot noir, adding extra structure and complexity to the final wine. All 16 of our open-top fermenting tanks, each able to hold eight tonnes of grapes, are fitted with both heating and cooling capacity. This enables us to cold soak the grapes for five to seven days at 10-12°C to extract all the beautiful fragrance of pinot noir as well as good colour from the skins before alcoholic fermentation begins. It also allows us to warm or cool ferments as necessary.