“Passion, family vision and the desire to put that passion into their own label”

Eileen and Steve Voysey produce an interesting range of wines from their family owned vineyard based in the central valley region of Gisborne. Their two labels, Spade Oak and Heart of Gold, are made with some exciting new grape varieties to NZ and the wine styles capture their terroir, their passion and result in some aromatic, complex and out of the ordinary wines.

In their vineyards they employ a mix of “old world” traditional techniques with narrow rows, low fruiting zone, use natural wild yeasts, and time and “new world” techniques such as gentle fining, filtration and reductive handling.

Current plantings consist of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah, but they also have Viognier, Petit Mansang, Marsanne, St Laurent, Grüner Veltliner, Tempranillo and Albarino – some really wonderful varieties not widely planted (yet) across New Zealand’s wine regions.

We have featured Spade Oak as our Website of the Week and since then I have had the pleasure of trying two of their wines from the Heart of Gold label  – Gruner Veltliner & Syrah Tempranillo…

Heart of Gold SV Gruner Veltliner 2010
Lovely Green gold in the glass with granny smith apple, stonefruit & white pepper on the nose. Nice fresh acidity, with more intense crisp green apple, pepper and spice on the palate, quite dry with a long finish and back palate warmth. I’m really warming to GV as a variety and as more come on to the market, I’ll certainly be expanding my ‘GV’ experience – a great food wine.
13.5% RRP $26.00

Heart of Gold SV Syrah Tempranillo 2009
Gorgeous colour, bright garnet / ruby red in the glass with dark/red berries / tamarillo with a hint of choc and black pepper on the nose. Lots of dark fruits – plum on the palate with some grippy tannins, some nice acidity and spicy oak, and finishes nicely but I think its needs a bit of age for the acid / tannin / oak to integrate. Overall a very enjoyable warm red for winter…
12.8% RRP $26

Both wines are available online from the Spade Oak website – Like their Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter too…