Winemaker / Owner : Robert van Zanten
Marketing Manager / Owner : Susan van Zanten
Martinus Estate was established in 1998. Producing only the one varietal “Pinot Noir”.The first release was the Martinus Estate 2001 Pinot Noir.
So far all our vintages have received either Gold Silver 5 or 4 stars. Martinus Estate is planted in a wide variety of Pinot Noir clones including the new Dijon clones, on varying rootstocks and on differing trellising systems, where the fruiting wire ranges from 900mm to a knee scraping 400mm. Together with the inherent low cropping of the Martinborough Terrace, mainly through the prevailing winds and selective fruit thinning, we believe that this will offer considerable complexity to the wine that we intend to produce .Our philosophy is quite simple, “Minimalistic approach enabling the terroir held within the grape to express itself.” Our 6-acre vineyard will produce enough fruit for around 600 cases as new plantings come on stream.
The grapes are hand harvested each year. Fermentations are in small stainless steel tanks with the wine sitting on it’s skins for around 21 days. Thereafter maturing for 10 months in French oak with approximately 25% being new.
Martinus Estate of Martinborough is situated in the picturesque, southern Wairarapa, which lies in the South Eastern corner of the north island, New-Zealand.
The Ripening season with it’s long hot days and cool nights are a prerequisite for growing world class Pinot Noir.
As we only have six acres each vine is carefully tended to by Robert and Myself. We are a family business with the grapes being handpicked by parents, sisters and friends. Robert and I have four children Jason age 17 Aaron age 15 Scott age 13 and Nicole age 11. The name Martinus Estate derives from Roberts family. It is also Roberts middle name.
