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KINDELI - Alex Craighead

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Here we landed (imaginatively...) in Nelson, a small town at the northern end of New Zealand's South Island. Nearby, exactly in the Upper Moutere, Alex Craighead is the mind and the hand, as well as the winemaker and owner of the Kindeli project. Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah, all organically grown and treated with the use of sulfur, algae, compost, bat guano and copper (only when absolutely necessary). Local trees and many wild crops also cross the rows, including plants such as clover that help restore nitrogen to the soil. And in Spring you can also attend the graceful dance among the vineyards of the neighbor's flock of sheep who mow the grass and eat all the leaves and shoots around the young and green bunches of grapes. Since the grapes are extremely high in acid and low and sugar at this point, the fruit is not appetizing for sheep.

In addition to these historic vineyards all located around the winery, the company recently purchased old Pinot Noir vineyards overlooking the ocean and Chardonnay planted in the Moutere Series Gravel.

Absolute cleanliness in the cellar! Alex doesn't even allow you to bring glasses of wine from their home to the cellar, for fear that an evil and rogue microorganism like the Brettanomyces will haunt the place.

In fact, it tends to be ultra sensitive to all forms of wine defect and has devised dozens of preventive measures that seem to be extremely effective. To avoid reduction, it supplies its wines with a lot of oxygen during fermentation; also performs delestage on white wines to keep fermentation good. Once the must is saturated with oxygen, it usually pumps the headspace of the fermentation vessel with CO2 to prevent unwanted bacteria from forming on the cork or on the surface of the wine. This usually hinders acetobacteria and therefore prevents unwanted volatile acidity.

Of course, all vinifications are spontaneous and in the cellar a combination of stainless steel tanks, neutral oak barrels, polyethylene tanks and amphorae cross. The experiments are never lacking, such as carbonic macerations, but also classic direct pressing and maceration on the skins which, however, have been reduced in the search for elegance and clarity. The finished wines are bottled exclusively by gravity (using an archaic evil gadget) and are hand-corked. In 2017 it was converted into Noma caps made with recycled sugar cane pieces. They are carbon neutral and cannot be infected with TCA or other deteriorating aromas. It does not add SO2 to wines and they are not clarified or filtered.

Ladies and gentlemen...here are the crazy blends of the fantastic and inimitable Alex Craighead!!!

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