Muddy Water

Waipara Valley,  New Zealand

Situated in the Waipara area of North Canterbury, New Zealand, Muddy Water is a direct translation from the Maori place name - wai (water) para (sediment, mud). Just as our name reflects the place, our wines reflect our vineyards. Our vineyards are situated on sunny slopes above the Waipara Valley in North Canterbury, on the South Island of New Zealand. Protected from cool sea breezes by a range of coastal hills, the Waipara area has a climate distinct from the rest of Canterbury. Cold, frosty winters, warm dry summers and dry sunny autumns provide intensely flavoured ripe grapes. Our soils are loam over calcarious clay on limestone bedrock, ideal for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, mirroring the Burgundian soils that are the natural home of these great varieties. We grow Pinot Noir, Pinotage, Syrah, Riesling and Chardonnay.

Muddy Water is the dream of owners Michael and Jane East, who purchased the property in 1993. The first wines were produced in 1997. Our winemaker, Belinda Gould, and vineyard manager Gwyn Williams are both dedicated to the production of unique, hand-crafted wines. All canopy and crop management is done by hand with meticulous attention to detail. Each vine is treated as an individual, resulting in balanced vines, and reflected in balanced wines. The extra vineyard work we do gives us open vines and low crop levels. This in turn means minimal use of vineyard chemicals and results in more flavour.

All fruit is hand-picked from our own vineyards and travels no more than 500m to the winery for processing. All the grapes are hand-sorted on our conveyor/sorting table which gently elevates the whole clusters to the press or destemmer. The white wines are carefully pressed as whole clusters to give minimal skin contact and clean unoxidised juice. The reds are destemmed using gravity and fermented in small open-top fermenters, the caps are managed by hand. Because the fruit is in near-perfect condition, the juice is fermented by the native yeasts from our vineyards and almost no winemaking additives are used. Our philosophy of the wines reflecting the vineyards means that in the cellar the wines are pumped and handled as little as possible and when we can we bottle without fining or filtration.