Mt Difficulty is a boutique winery

Winemaker Matt Dicey talks about the vintage at Mt. Difficulty

Mt Difficulty is a boutique winery located in Bannockburn in Central Otago, New Zealand. The Bannockburn area is internationally recognised as one of the few places in the world where the pernickety Pinot Noir variety has found a home outside Burgundy. Martinborough in New Zealand and Oregon in the US are the only other regions where Pinot Noir seems to truly flourish.

The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area provides hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. This, along with a mix of clays and gravels ideal for viticulture, provides an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay.

Mt Difficulty Wines was named after the mountain over-looking Felton Road and the southern Cromwell basin. This mountain is a very important part of the Bannockburn microclimate, providing shelter from the cool winds of the Wakatipu Basin and Gibbston Valley.

To ensure the full potential of the region is realised, we have a policy of very low cropping levels in our vineyards, all of which are owned and managed by the shareholders of Mt Difficulty. Most of our vines were planted in the early 1990’s. This is relatively early for Central Otago and is extremely valuable in adding extra complexity and concentration to our Pinot Noirs.

 In early 2001 we commissioned a state of the art winery among the vines on our Templars Hill vineyard on Felton Road. The winery was specially designed to produce hand made Pinot Noir, along with separate facilities for other varieties and a specific barrel hall for Chardonnay. This facility, along with the expertise of wine maker Matt Dicey, allows us to convert the outstanding qualities of the grapes into equally outstanding wine.

The Mt Difficulty brand started in 1998 with a very small production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The first Pinot Noir went on to win a Gold medal at the 1999 Air New Zealand wine awards, while the Chardonnay attained Silver. This was a great result for a startup winery and showed the potential for these varieties in Central Otago. Previously the grapes from our vineyards were included in many top-performing wines from other Central Otago wineries.

Until 2003, when Mt Difficulty Wines Ltd was formed, the vineyards were privately owned by the partners who shook hands a decade earlier and formed the Mt Difficulty brand. The initial joint venture has grown into a leading New Zealand boutique winery with export markets in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as many other smaller markets.

(source: http://www.mtdifficulty.co.nz)

Jean Arnaud Wijncom BV Tilburg The Netherlands is the importer of MT Difficulty wines for the Netherlands. More info: www.jeanarnaud.com or mail: info@jeanarnaud.com