Halcyon Days

Halcyon Days was born in 2018 in Hawke’s Bay after the meeting of Amy Hopksinson-Styles and Olly Styles.

Deeply enthusiastic about organic agriculture and healthy produce, Amy grew up on the land in regional NZ and has an uncle in Hawke's Bay who is a winemaker. At the age of 23, and straight out of her winemaking degree, Amy was offered a position to establish a brand new winery in Castilla-Leon for American company Jorge Ordonez Selections. It was a dream opportunity, so Amy moved to Spain, built a brand new winery in the tiny, remote village of Villanueva de Campean and set about sourcing fruit from the pre-phylloxera tempranillo vineyards the area is famous for.

Olly Styles is a wine writer who grew up in Oxfordshire and has also completed a winemaking degree. He and Amy met in London and the pair returned from Spain to live in New Zealand in early 2012. They now live in Hawke's Bay and have two wonderful boys.

For the first two years of Halcyon Days, the fruit was all purchased from a site in the Mangatahi sub region of Hawke's Bay. This area sits directly inland from Hastings, and has a slightly higher altitude. Amy and Olly also now work with a site in the Bridge Pa subregion. Both vineyards are organic (certified by BioGro) with alluvial soils composed of red gravel beneath loam.

Light is critical to growing grapes with a good potential for balanced fermentation and malolactic conversion and Hawke's Bay really has plenty of it.

The wines are almost all made and raised in tank and have exceptional fruit purity as a result. In terms of vinification and elevage and the resultant purity, there is a parallel between these wines and the wines of Jerome Lambert or Sebastien Dervieux - wines so flawless it almost seems magical. Amy and Olly are true lovers of wine and find all styles interesting. Within the scope of their own winemaking they really just want the wines to be correct, pure and delicious. As such, they have a wonderful level of fussiness in the winery.

Each of the cuvees has been picked for flavour but also with lots of freshness in mind. Despite the relatively low alcohol levels the wines have broad and expansive back palates and really lovely length. Grown on alluvial soils, the structure and presence on the palate sits somewhere between the deep tannic presence that comes from clay soils and the fresh airiness that limestone gives. The type of acidity is more harmonious and integrated than we often see from wines grown on pure decomposed granite. The fruit expression from these sites is quite unique — intoxicatingly delicious but with a really appealing delicacy.

Mangatahi, Hawke’s Bay

 

Information on previous wines

  • 2023 Direct-press chardonnay from 18-year-old vines planted over loam and alluvial gravel at the Osawa vineyard in Mangatahi. The wine saw 9 months of elevage in tank, with its lees, before bottling. An early-picked, lower-ABV expression of the variety, with clarity of fruit and lees-influenced texture.

  • 2023 Chardonnay from the Biogro-certified organic Osawa vineyard in Mangatahi. A large portion of the fruit comes from the muscat-like 809 clone, and this portion was gently macerated in tank, before being blended with direct-press juice from more linear clones. Fermentation and elevage in tank.

  • 2023 Chenin blanc from the Two Terraces vineyard in the Mangatahi subregion – the first fruit allocation for Amy and Olly from this vineyard. Some of the fruit was pressed direct, while some was macerated for one week. Elevage in tank. Lower ABV, with texture, drive and great clarity of fruit.

  • Lightly macerated sauvignon blanc from the Osawa vineyard in Mangatahi, vinified in stainless steel. This cuvee was formerly known as Kotare

    2024 100% sauvignon blanc. A concentrated and high quality year, with lower yields following the cyclone of 2023. Light-to-medium bodied and textural with layers of varietal green pineapple fruit and pyrazine character.

    2022 Some macerated chardonnay and pinot noir rosé was used to top up the wine. Fruit was picked at three different stages, with amounts of whole bunches and maceration times varying from pick to pick. A lighter, lower-alcohol style with various shades of varietal fruit and some gentle lees influence.

  • 2020 Macerated sauvignon blanc with a small amount of gewurztraminer. About 230L of wine was taken from the Kotare cuvee and run to a single 265L barrel for a year of elevage under a thin veil of flor.

  • 2019 Macerated pinot gris with whole-bunch pressed pinot noir, resulting in a rosé/orange wine. Bright, with various shades of fruit - citrus, tart red berries and stone fruit.

  • 2022 Direct-press pinot noir (66%) and macerated chardonnay (33%), blended in tank to create a rosé wine. Bright and delicate, with restrained, tart red fruit in the realm of winter berries, rhubarb and red apple skin, with some more savoury mineral and leesy elements. 10% ABV.

  • 2020 Macerated sauvignon (20% crushed, 80% whole bunch), whole bunch gewurztraminer, and direct press pinot noir. Aged on lees in tanks for six months. A warmer year, producing more generosity of fruit than the more austere 2019. Very pure, with green peppercorn and pithy notes, and some savoury mineral elements on the palate from the skins and lees. Fine, delicate tannins.

  • 2023 Sangiovese from the Osawa vineyard with 7% chardonnay. Dark rosé or light red in colour, with lower ABV, great clarity of fruit and some lees influence. The wine is called Vermillion in this vintage.

    2022 A dark rosé made from sangiovese with 5% sauvignon blanc, all grown at the Osawa vineyard. Fruit was picked at various stages, with multiple ferments blended to create the final wine. A lighter style, with varietal freshness, bright red fruit, some lees influence and lower-ABV. The wine was called Mangatahi in this vintage.

  • 2019 Sangiovese planted on loam over red alluvial gravel in Mangatahi. Fruit macerated gently as whole bunches, with elevage in tank. A delicate style with pure red berry and garrigue varietal flavours.

  • Sangiovese from the Osawa vineyard, part-destemmed, macerated gently for about 10 days, with elevage in stainless steel tank.

    2024 Light-to-medium-bodied. A concentrated and very high quality year, with reduced yields following the cyclone of 2023, resulting in a slightly darker and fleshier rendition of the wine with slightly more pronounced tannic presence.

    2022 A lighter, lower-ABV style, albeit with more structure than the Mangatahi. Very pure and delicate varietal fruit character.

  • 2021 80% syrah from the Bridge Pa vineyard and 20% pinot noir from the Osawa vineyard. Everything was fermented as whole bunches, with elevage in tank. Varietal syrah aromatics, with a crisp, taut palate, relatively dark fruit, minerality and some sappiness on the back palate. 11% ABV.

    2020 80% syrah from the Bridge Pa vineyard and 20% pinot noir from the Osawa vineyard. Everything was fermented as whole bunches, with elevage in tank. Varietal syrah aromatics and gentle aromatic reduction, with a pure and crystal clear palate with various shades of fruit. Super fine tannic structure, with lower ABV (10.5%).