Set in the alluvial heart of Marlborough, one of the world's most recognised wine-growing regions and a place as beautiful as it is abundant, you will find the vineyards that grew the reputation of Oyster Bay. Here, on the shallow stony soils of the tranquil Wairau Plains, where long, slow summers and cool autumn nights give birth to grapes of intense and fruity flavours, Oyster Bay began, from the very outset, to produce wines of international stature.
Described more recently by leading London wine writer, Giles Kime, as "pretty close to being the elusive stuff of dreams". Marlborough provides Oyster Bay with the perfect mix of sun and soil to produce wines of great character - distinctive, assertive, cool-climate chardonnays, sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs that define the very essence - and exclusivity - of New Zealand viticulture.
If Marlborough was the birthplace of Oyster Bay, then Hawkes Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, is its second home. Here on silty, sun-drenched alluvial plains carved by ancient glaciers, Oyster Bay grows some of New Zealand's most elegant and exciting, cool-climate Merlots.
Oyster Bay takes its name from the local Oyster Bay on the tip of New Zealand's majestic South Island. Oyster Bay's reputation has been built from vines grown in Marlborough's central Wairau Valley now recognised as one of the great wine growing regions of the world. With its cool, sunny, maritime climate and its shallow, stony soils etched across great alluvial plains by ancient glaciers, Marlborough is described in Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas as "One of the greatest places on earth to grow vines, producing some of the world's most remarkable wines!"
Small wonder Oyster Bay has consistently won so many of the world's most-prestigious wine awards and the hearts of so many wine lovers from Sydney to Seattle, London to New York. Internationally-recognised for producing elegant, assertive wines with glorious fruit flavours, Oyster Bay is also a winemaker with great viticultural vision. It was Oyster Bay that had the foresight, over two decades ago, to recognise the enormous wine-growing potential that lay beneath the stony, alluvial soils of a marginal sheep farming district in New Zealand's Hawkes Bay.
Today Oyster Bay is producing some of New Zealand's finest varietal red wines. Not surprisingly, one of the most exciting of these is Oyster Bay's own Hawkes Bay Merlot, already being hailed as a worthy complement to a range of chardonnays, sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs that proudly carry the name - and growing international reputation - of Oyster Bay. Oyster Bay produce fine, distinctly regional wines, the benefits of moderating yields and a cool climate, are evidenced in the concentration of fruit. Great measure is taken to ensure the gentle crushing of the grapes, the juice is allowed to slowly cold settle, whilst a long, slow temperature controlled fermentation and immediate bottling, retains all the wonderful fruit flavours and aromas of the grapes.
Everything that Oyster Bay ndeavours is directed to the end consumer. The passion at Oyster Bay is to share the unique attributes, quality and style of some New Zealand?s most sought-after, super-premium wines with those as passionate as the winemakers themselves. "Marlborough is such a damned good place to grow vines. In fact, I'll go further than that. It's one of the greatest places on earth to grow them, producing some of the world's most remarkable wines!" -Oz Clarke
