Seresin Estate Wines

Hand made, that’s a good way of describing the Seresin Philosophy. Outside the main vineyard lies a stone with a handprint to signify the endeavour of working traditionally with the elements that nature provides. The wines are testament to this philosophy and farmed bio-dynamically and organically meaning the fruit is a pure example of the vineyard. Grapefruit and lime are the key players backed up by a stunning minerality. This is textural Savvy showing zesty characters of gooseberry and citrus with a nice creamy finish.

Light green-yellow; the attractive bouquet is clean, clear and crisp, with flecks of lemon and gooseberry. It is the palate which ripples with complexity and texture. The flavours again with a slight lemony edge to gooseberry fruit; the wine has great length and a fraction of my tasting notes reads 'plenty happening'

This is a marvellous wine, with concentrated ripe-fruit flavour. It's very complex, with nutty, toasty, barrel-fermented characters, but the sauvignon fruit is still readily apparent. There are smoke and mineral flavours in a rich palate that has wonderful texture and persistence. Try it with warm goat's cheese and onion tartlets.

I love this label and I love this wine. The winemaker has clearly decided that there are enough simple fruity sauvignon blancs around so he's fermented a bit of his in oak and blended in around 10% semillon. The result is a much more complex wine than the vast majority in this style. And what it lacks in instant pungency on the nose, it more than makes up for on the palate. An absolute pearler.

Now this is very much my style of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. These wines can tend to be a bit like catchy pop tunes: you really like them at first, but after a few rotations they start to drive you mad. Well this is like a pop tune that just gets better every timeÑit has that little something special. Not sure if it's the classic guitar hook, the clever lyricsÑor maybe the barrel fermented component and the touch of semillon...

Definitely a wine to serve with blue cheese! Dry, minerally/honeyed nose with funky complexity. Great flavour depth to the palate; slightly sweet with balancing oak. A touch warm.

This is quite a big, rich and swarthy style of gris, showing golden colour in the glass and a gently nutty, savoury nose, with ripe exotic pear, mango and peach fruits. The palate's robustly textured and carries a density of flavour that really lingers; spiced-quince finish.

This is punching in the top weight division in price, but the wine is a complex, svelte and engaging style that's more restrained and layered than the simple fruit bombs filling supermarket shelves. The nose has grass and nettle aromas, some lemon rind, and cedary, nutty French oak. The palate's smooth and even, with creamy complexity and a spiced-lime flavour; nutty and smooth finish.

Medium yellow-green; an extremely complex, full-on bouquet with cashew/ hazelnut malolactic and barrel-ferment aromas; there is a cavalcade of nutty, figgy and toasty flavours on the palate which seem to build power and presence on the finish.

Medium green-yellow; a crisp and clean bouquet with a mix of asparagus, herb, mineral and a hint of gooseberry all make their mark is followed by a lively, flavoursome palate with textural complexity deriving from the barrel-ferment component, yet with no appreciable oak flavour. Very much a case of less being better.

Much deeper yellow-green than the varietal; the bouquet is more complex, with nutty barrel-ferment and malolactic-ferment characters making a positive contribution to quite intense fruit. The palate does not let the wine down, with melon, fig and cashew flavours; intense and long.

Intense, glowing green-yellow; a complex bouquet with a mix of lemon rind, ripe pear and mineral leads into a palate with excellent structure, long and intense, with an almost creamy feel.

This is a lovely chardonnay that shows some positive effects from bottle-age. It's full yellow in hue, and the bouquet contains elements of buttered toast, vanilla and candy as well as tinned peach and oatmeal. It is very complex. There was a hint of mustiness in our sample, but the wine impressed all the same. It would suit barbecued crayfish.

One of the darkest coloured Marlborough pinot noirs, it has rich black cherry fruits, undergrowth and some dark toasted spices; a more brooding style. The palate delivers full dark fruit flavours and more toasted rich spices, chocolate and earth, brisk acidity sharpens up the finish. A striking and distinctive style.

This wine heads up into special cuvée territory and has a bright, sweet cherry/plum nose with handsome, toasty oak spice. The palate's bathed in sweet ripe cherry/plum flavour too, really impressive concentration and purity, with oak well built into the rest of the wine. Fresh, lively and convincing pinot.

Deeply coloured, sturdy blend of grapes from three company-owned sites, given lengthy barrel maturation and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Mouthfilling, with ripe cherry, plum, spice and nut flavours, in a concentrated, very savoury style. Best 2012+.

Exotically perfumed, single-vineyard wine, partly barrel-fermented. Alsace style, mouthfilling and complex, with intensely varietal stonefruit, ginger and spice flavours, finely textured, soft and rich.

The '09 Leah pinot is bright and composed, with ripe strawberry and cherry fruits, handy sappy forest-floor pinot notes and a stripe of toasty oak spice - it's quite savoury and will build earthy aromas in time. The palate's showing fine-boned tannins and delivers a balanced, even and juicy result; tangy acid finish.

Weighty, fully dry style, showing excellent body, concentration and complexity. Barrel-fermented, fleshy, sweet-fruited and rounded, with peachy, mealy flavours, hints of melons and spices, and a finely textured, rich, harmonious finish.

Light to medium yellow-green; a complex bouquet showing the sophisticated use of barrel-ferment and malolactic-ferment influences well integrated with fig, cashew and melon fruit; very stylish. The palate is perhaps just a fraction light on, but is immaculately balanced, reflecting all of the flavours promised by the bouquet.