DESCRIPTION

Halcyon Days “Alcyone” 750ml

ABV-10.5% alc Heretaunga-Hawke’s Bay

Biogro certified Organic, no additions.

Blend: Sangiovese 100%

Alcyone (Olly pronounces it with a hard “c”, as in Alk-eye-o-nee, while Amy pronounces it “Al-see-own” – take your pick) is one of the nymphs, or pleiades, in Greek mythology (from which we get the name of the kingfisher, Halcyon). It is also the brightest of the stars in the Pleiades, or Matariki (a star formation with a heliacal rise that announces the start of Matariki here in Aotearoa).

As you can see, we got quite involved in the naming of this wine but in essence it is, quite simply, Mangatahi’s older sister. Whereas our 2022 Mangatahi was a vibrant dark rosé/light red, Alcyone is our more structured red expression of Sangiovese from the beautiful Osawa vineyard in 2022.

The grapes were hand picked, part destemmed, part whole bunch to open fermenter, natural ferment on skins with very gentle extraction for 10 days. Pressed and underwent malo and aging in the tank. No additions filtration or fining.