‘Brothers’ launch Gisborne 2024 Albarino wine

The Albarino Brothers – Ant Saunders, Ollie Powrie and Shaye Bird – have launched their Gisborne 2024 Albarino wine. Photo / Richard Brimer

The Albarino Brothers launched their Gisborne 2024 Albarino wine at a function in the city yesterday.

Ollie Powrie, Shaye Bird and Ant Saunders are three friends connected through wine. They are not at all related.

The men conceived what they describe as a “passion project”, a wine using 100% Gisborne-grown Albarino grapes. The 2024 version is a historic first for the trio.

“We’re all passionate about the quality and potential of the wine,” they said. “It’s a crisp, refreshing and tangy dry white wine that has already been described as the ‘it’ wine for this coming summer.”

A wine industry spokesman said the Albarino grape variety had an affinity to Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regions – sharing characteristics with the variety’s native home in northwestern Spain and Portugal.

“The slightly warmer nights are perfect to tame the natural high acidity of the variety, and having evolved in a marine climate, the grape is very resistant to humidity and rain coming in from the ocean.”

Powrie said: ”All said and done, this means that Gisborne was an ideal place from which to source a world-class wine.”

Gisborne grapegrowers Doug and Delwyn Bell played a role in the development of the Albarino variety in New Zealand more than a decade ago.

The Albarino Brothers launch was held at Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club.