BIGHTWATER GRAVELS
Nelson, New Zealand
Family owned and operated for three generations, Brightwater Gravels is a boutique Nelson winery with a focus on producing balanced, elegant and food friendly wines. Owner Rob Grey moved to Southland when he was a young lad, the Grey family brought our property to run as a dairy farm producing milk for town supply. Rob stayed in the dairy industry until 1996 then began to convert the farm to vineyards growing premium quality grapes for numerous prestigious New Zealand wine brands including Kim Crawford and Craggy Range. In 2011, Rob’s daughter Kylie and her husband Ryan O’Connell moved back to Brightwater and together with Rob launched under their own label. The winemaker is Trudy Sheild, formerly of Waimea Estates.
Region & Vineyard Notes
Nestled between the Wai-iti and Wairoa rivers in Brightwater, Nelson, the vines thrive in free draining alluvial soils of gravel and sandy loam. Expert vineyard management is aided with modern systems like computer controlled drip fed water supply if required along with natural practices of grazing sheep for grass and weed control makes us perfectly set up to provide premium quality, clean fruit to the winery. High sunshine hours and the cool, clear skies of autumn provide a slow ripening period that helps to retain the vibrant varietal flavours that make our wines so distinctive.
Nelson is NZ’s dark horse wine region and the hot value tip for the next decade for anyone who likes wine from Marlborough. As Lisa Perotti-Brown, the new face of Wine Advocate, tweeted: “Tho located in the shadow of Marlborough, the wines r anything but!”. Nelson is Marlborough’s small neighbour with only a couple of dozen wineries, situated on the North-west tip of the South Island the region consistently wins more awards than any other NZ wine region per hectare of vines planted.