The Chronicle
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51 results across all types
videoRockburn Chardonnay 2024
Head Wine Maker Malcolm Rees-Francis describes the 2024 Rockburn Chardonnay. Hi folks, I’d like to tell you a bit about our Rockburn 2024 Chardonnay. This wine comes exclusively from our Parkburn Vineyard here in the Cromwell Basin. We ferment it in stainless steel to keep the fruit profile clean and precise, then mature it in barrel. That time in oak adds subtle complexity, gently softening and rounding the edges while maintaining freshness. Thanks to the naturally bright acidity, the wine stay
videoRockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2024
Rockburn Pinot Noir – the wine we’re best known for. As always, this vintage is a blend of fruit from our two estate vineyards: around 85% from our Parkburn site in the Cromwell Basin and the remainder from the Dick Bunton Vineyard in Gibbston. The 2024 vintage was outstanding, giving us excellent volumes of beautifully expressive wine. It’s showing classic purity with vibrant fruit, impressive depth, tension, and a distinctive minerality on the palate. I’m really excited about this release and
videoDawn at Parkburn Vineyard
Enjoy a quick scenic flight over Rockburn's Parkburn Vineyard
videoRockburn Stolen Kiss Rose 2025
The Rockburn Stolen Kiss Rosé. Being a cooler vintage, it has really nice, clean fruit and beautiful, crisp flavours. The fruit for this wine is mostly from our Parkburn site, with some from Alexandra. We had really clean ferments — some of the best-quality fruit and ferments I’ve ever seen for a rosé. Again, we stopped just short of dryness, so it’s only barely off-dry, but full of fruit. The thing just leaps out of the glass.
videoRockburn Milestone
Recently Rockburn Wines marked a major milestone —Malcolm Rees-Francis’ 20th vintage as Rockburn’s winemaker—with an unforgettable tasting at Park Hyatt Auckland. From our estate Pinot Noirs to rare single-vineyard expressions, each flight showcased the evolution of Malcolm’s winemaking and a true expression of Central Otago Pinot Noir: Flight One – Rockburn Estate Pinot Noir: 2006, 2010, 2015, 2023 Flight Two – The Barrels (Parkburn Vineyard): Eight Barrels 2006, Twelve Barrels 2009, Eleven Bar
videoRockburn The Barrels Parkburn Pinot Noir 2024
Malcolm Rees-Francis here from Rockburn Wines, here to tell you about The Barrels Parkburn. Some of you may notice we’ve refined the name slightly. We’re simply tightening up the wording to keep it clearer and more memorable — but the wine and its intent remain the same. This wine comes solely from our Parkburn site in the Cromwell Basin. It’s all about the terroir of this vineyard — ancient glacial soils, incredibly stony, and drenched in sunshine throughout the summer. That’s exactly what you
videoRockburn The Barrels Gibbston Pinot Noir 2024
Malcolm Rees-Francis here from Rockburn Wines to tell you about The Barrels from our Dick Bunton Vineyard in Gibbston. Year on year, our Gibbston site continues to show more character as the vines mature and the soils increasingly assert themselves in the wine. This is truly a terroir-driven expression. These barrels are a very small selection, chosen from just a couple of dozen we produce from this vineyard each year. Gibbston is now delivering remarkable density and structure, and we use a gen
videoDevil's Staircase Pinot Noir 2025
videoRockburn The Art Pinot Noir 2023
Head Winemaker Malcolm Rees-Francis discusses the Rockburn The Art Pinot Noir 2023. Hi folks, I’d love to tell you about the Art Pinot Noir 2023. This wine comes from a special, off-estate vineyard — a bit of a secret site — which allows us to showcase a completely different terroir and tannin profile to what we typically see at Rockburn. It’s sourced from Bendigo, so we’re working with those distinctive Bendigo tannins that really stand apart within Central Otago’s sub-regions. With this wine,
video15 Oct 2025. Chardonnay Update from the Parkburn Vineyard #centralotago #rockburnwines
Malcolm Rees- Francis gives a quick update on the 2026 Chardonnay from the Parkburn Vineyard
videoRockburn Crimson Peak Pinot Noir 2024
This wine is a true evocation of Central Otago, shaped by the mountainsides and river valleys where the fruit is grown. It’s bright, fresh, and fruity, with a natural tension and minerality from our soils. The wine spends just enough time in oak to mature and develop those cosy, toasty flavours, and it has a long life ahead. A wonderful wine to enjoy with family and friends.
videoMalcolm Rees-Francis' 20th Vintage with Rockburn
The 2025 vintage at Rockburn marks a major milestone for Central Otago winemaker Malcolm Rees-Francis, celebrating his 20th vintage at Rockburn Wines. To celebrate this achievement, Rockburn hosted a special 20th vintage retrospective tasting at Park Hyatt Auckland on 29 July, gathering media, trade and pinot noir enthusiasts to mark the occasion. The tasting spanned 16 wines over four flights, each telling a story of site, vintage, and Malcolm’s winemaking evolution.
video15 Oct 2025. Chardonnay Update from the Parkburn Vineyard #centralotago #rockburnwines
Malcolm Rees- Francis gives a quick update on the 2026 Chardonnay from the Parkburn Vineyard
videoRockburn Pinot Gris 2024
Let me tell you a bit about Rockburn Pinot Gris. The fruit comes from Gibbston, a cooler sub-region, which helps us preserve vibrant fruit character — delivering plenty of those juicy, fruit-forward notes. We balance this with more texture compared to our Devil's Staircase Pinot Gris. For the 2024 vintage, we’re experimenting with a bit more skin contact to enhance color, texture, and complexity. The result is a beautifully food-friendly wine. Pinot Gris is a true chameleon when it comes to food
videoRockburn Fume Blanc 2024
videoCrimson Peak Pinot Noir 2023
Let me introduce you to Crimson Peak Pinot Noir. This wine is crafted from a blend of exceptional fruit sourced from multiple sites across Central Otago, showcasing the region’s diverse terroir. The fermentation process is kept straightforward, and the wine is primarily matured in old oak, allowing the vibrant fruit character to take center stage, with the oak playing a subtle supporting role. Crimson Peak is incredibly food-friendly and wonderfully easy to drink upon release. While it will age
videoRockburn The Chosen Abel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2023
Let me introduce you to The Chosen Abel Pinot Noir from 2023. The Chosen range focuses on specific clones or vineyard sites, allowing us to dig deep into the unique characteristics that define what we craft as winemakers to create the signature Rockburn Pinot Noir. Abel refers to one of the clones we’ve planted at our Parkburn site. It’s grown in several areas, but this wine comes from a single parcel. From that parcel, I’ve carefully selected just four barrels to showcase this clone’s distinctive qualities. Abel is known for being a more tannic clone, and this wine emphasises that characteristic, giving you a closer look at one of the building blocks we use in our blends. For this bottling, we’ve avoided using new oak, allowing the pure fruit character of the clone to take center stage. It’s a deep dive into the details of our winemaking process—nerdy, yes, but something I think you’ll find fascinating!
videoRockburn The Chosen 777 Parkburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2023
Hi folks, I’m here to introduce you to The Chosen 777 Pinot Noir from 2023. The Chosen is a range we created to highlight very specific clones or vineyard sites, diving deep into the finer details of what makes our vineyard unique. It’s a chance to explore and share the precise characteristics our site offers through its fruit. 777 refers to the clone used for this wine, which we’ve planted in a couple of spots on our Parkburn site. This particular bottling comes from a single parcel of fruit, resulting in just four carefully selected barrels. We intentionally avoid using new oak in this bottling—at most, we use one-year-old barrels. This approach ensures the oak plays a supporting role, allowing the pure, intrinsic fruit quality of this specific clone to shine through. It’s a fascinating wine to explore, offering an authentic glimpse into the nuances of our craft as winemakers and the exceptional fruit our vineyard produces.
videoRockburn Seven Barrels "Dick Bunton Vineyard, Gibbston" Pinot Noir 2023
Rockburn Seven Barrels; the name says it all really. Every year we fill hundreds of French oak barrels with Pinot Noir, and every year we search for those individual barrels that most eloquently speak of site and season. We present the results of that search to you here with a wine that exhibits the attributes we enjoy most about Gibbston Pinot Noir; subtlety, elegance and personality. This wine exemplifies the sophistication of Pinot Noir that comes from the Gibbston Valley. In the glass the colour is an opalescent light garnet and when taken to the nose you are rewarded with a wonderful aroma of spice and florals with a lovely nuance of oak. Letting the wine ‘breathe’ for a while will reward you with delicate forest floor characters. Restrained strawberry and raspberry flavours are suspended on a fabulous acid structure and very fine tannins complement the taste experience. This a beautifully structured, balanced wine. The finish is long and lingering. Overall, the wine is delica
videoDevil's Staircase Pinot Gris 2024
videoDevil's Staircase Central Otago Pinot Noir 2024
Devil’s Staircase Pinot Noir 2024 It was a cooler vintage, and clean fruit was the key this year. Devil’s Staircase takes its name from the winding road between Frankton and Kingston along the shores of Lake Wakatipu – a stunning part of the country. Drive carefully; it’s worth slowing down to enjoy the scenery, but it can be a treacherous stretch if you’re not paying attention! This Pinot Noir is an unoaked style. We fermented and matured it entirely in stainless steel to preserve all that vibrant Central Otago fruit character. It does go through malolactic fermentation to soften out the palate. The result? An easy-drinking wine that’s ready to enjoy right now. While it will hold for a couple of years, it’s really all about immediate pleasure.
videoRockburn Eleven Barrels Parkburn Pinot Noir 2023
We're excited to share the story of our 2023 Eleven Barrels Parkburn Pinot Noir. The warmer vintage brought out exceptional fruit character from our Parkburn vineyard, and we selected 11 standout barrels to highlight the unique qualities of this site and season. This wine captures the essence of Parkburn, which is known for delivering soft, plush tannins and a rich fruit profile that shapes our Rockburn Pinot Noir blend. By carefully choosing the barrels that best represent these traits, we’re able to offer you the “cream of the crop” from Parkburn. We hold these barrels back an additional six months after bottling the main Rockburn Pinot Noir, allowing the wine to mature further before release. The result is a premium expression of Parkburn’s terroir, built to age beautifully.
videoRockburn Stolen Kiss Central Otago Rosé 2024
The sweetly frivolous and fruity side of Central Otago Pinot Noir is bound up in this bottle of Stolen Kiss Rosé; once unleashed into your glass its candy-floss and crème-brûlée aromas shall sashay into a flirtatious toffee-apple and simmering strawberry palate smeared with cherry lip-gloss; most fun to drink chilled on sultry summer afternoons and evenings. The Rockburn Stolen Kiss Rosé 2024 is a true standout, crafted from a cooler vintage that has delivered exceptionally clean fruit and beautifully crisp flavors. The fruit for this wine primarily comes from our Parkburn site, resulting in some of the finest quality fruit and ferments I’ve ever seen for a rosé. This wine is stopped just shy of full dryness, making it only slightly off-dry, but it’s bursting with vibrant fruit. Right now, even in the depths of winter, this wine leaps out of the glass with its intensity. We’re incredibly excited about the 2024 vintage—it’s a rosé that truly makes a statement!
videoRockburn Tigermoth Riesling 2024
We'de like to introduce our 2024 Rockburn Tigermoth Riesling. The Riesling vines in our Parkburn Vineyard are over 20 years old now—venerable, low-yielding, and showing some age. This maturity brings complexity to the grapes, which we keep pruned low to capture the ideal ripeness for our Spätlese-style Riesling. The 2024 vintage delivered exceptionally clean fruit, resulting in a pure, smooth fermentation with no faults or funkiness—just vibrant, fruity clarity. We stop fermentation short of complete dryness, leaving a touch of residual sugar and an alcohol level of around 8%, creating a light, refreshing wine. It’s perfect for lunch or a sunny afternoon and promises to age gracefully for years to come.