Climate

The Southern Hemisphere’s predominant airflow, the “roaring forties”, passes over the South Island in a westerly fashion. When it hits the Southern Alps, most of its moisture precipitates on the Western side, forming an important rain shadow to the east. Up to five metres (5000mm) of rain can fall each year on the Western Ranges, whereas at Rippon, only fifty kilometres away, our annual rainfall is around 600mm. Most of this falls in the springtime. The summers are hot and dry with a heat summation range of 700-1250HDD. An extended late-summer to autumn season, with a large a large diurnal temperature range (up to 25°C), allows the fruit to ripen slowly with tight, locked-in flavours. Winters are cold, but not extreme. Whilst the winter snow level sits about one third of the way down our surrounding mountains (roughly 500 metres above us), it only falls on the vineyard once or twice a year and melts quickly the next day.