It allows the particular characteristics of the soil and vine clones to be expressed from season to season, and to be compared with those of wines from other blocks.
It's something wineries focused on their vineyards and quality aspire to, and Carrick in Bannockburn, Central Otago, reached a new stage in its development with the recent release of its first single-vineyard wine, Carrick Excelsior Pinot Noir 2005.
Made from a block of older vines on the slopes over the former Excelsior coal mine, that once supplied fuel for gold dredges on the river below, this wine will only be made in years when the season is suitable.
Fragrant with red rather than black fruits, a savoury hint and an elegance, it is not in the usual mould of overt cherry fruit and spice we often associate with pinots from the Cromwell basin.
Already three years old, it will continue to develop for several years.
Made in small quantities and priced around $85, it will be a collector's item.
Carrick not only has a new single-block wine to add to its premium Carrick range and the more affordable Carrick Unravelled, but it also has a new winemaker, as well as a new viticulturist who is taking the vineyard through the organic certification.
"We live in the vineyard and we believe we should look after the soils and they are difficult to manage in Central Otago," says Barbara Robertson Green, who, with her husband Steve Green, established the vineyard in 1994.
The first wine under the Carrick label was released in 2000 and the winery and acclaimed restaurant opened in 2002.
Blair Deaker, who has been looking after the vineyard for about a year, is originally from Cromwell, although he recently worked in Gisborne vineyards.
The changes in the vineyard are where huge leaps in quality will come from, says winemaker Jane Docherty, who joined the team earlier this year.
Formerly assistant winemaker at Felton Road and with a science degree from the University of Otago and a winemaking diploma from Lincoln, she says she loves both the science and the hedonistic side of winemaking.
