Gisborne wine selected for Swedish market

Winemaker Steve Voysey is thrilled at his Spade Oak Le Champ Blancs de Blancs being selected from numerous wines to be sold on the Swedish market. A container of the wine is en route to Stockholm by ship.

A container of the Spade Oak Le Champ Blancs de Blancs, a wine produced in Gisborne, is on the water on its way to Stockholm in Sweden.

The wine was presented to a Swedish tasting panel and chosen from numerous entries to be sold in the Swedish wine market.

This is a departure from usual for Spade Oak, owned by Steve and Eileen Voysey, who up until now have sold exclusively in the New Zealand market.

The Gisborne brand released its first wine in 2007 and has since grown year on year ever since.

The Voyseys said they were thrilled that their wine was chosen.

Their 17-hectare vineyard was sold in 2019 to scale back the amount of work, but the brand continues, with Steve making Spade Oak wine locally.

“This Le Champ is special in a number of ways,” he said.

“Made from Mendoza Chardonnay grown on the original Benson Block in Ormond valley, the wine was made in 2007, giving wonderful bottle age.”

He produced it in his role as Montana winemaker.

The Le Champ Blanc de Blancs was removed from its casks, bottled (2008), aged, disgorged and labelled under the Spade Oak brand, and Steve was able to finish the project started over 15 years ago.