"A lovely Viognier - all pears, delicate floral notes with a little bit of sweet honey coming off as well."

Ruud Maasdam founded Staete Landt in 1998 with the vision of making intensely flavoured, complex and 100% estate grown wines from their 21 hectare vineyard on the ‘Golden Mile’ in Rapaura Marlborough. The vineyard produces highly regarded single estate Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Viognier and Syrah.

Staete Landt is the old Dutch name given to New Zealand by Abel Tasman when he discovered the island in 1642. It means: “Land discovered in honour of the Governors (Staete) of the Dutch Republic”. On his voyage Abel Tasman also discovered Tasmania (Van Diemen Land), Fiji and Tonga. On his return to the Dutch Republic it was decided to change Staete Landt to its present name.

The Staete Landt Vineyard was designed to produce single vineyard, hand made wines with complexity through thorough use of clone, rootstock and soil variation. The major focus is on the vineyard where healthy, balanced vines, will in turn deliver consistently ripe fruit with distinct Marlborough flavours. Through shoot thinning, bunch thinning and manual leaf plucks they concentrate on low yields in order to grow intensely flavoured grape berries.

The vineyard’s close proximity to the Wairau river, the main river in the Marlborough valley, produces a continuous airflow which keeps frosts away at crucial times during the grape growing season from budburst (September/October) through to harvest (March/April). The combination of the location of the vineyard, the stony riverbed soils and the heavier soils on the southern part of the vineyard enable them to produce single vineyard wines with depth and layers of flavours.