Kiwi Winery World-First to Use Green Tea as Natural Preservative

Award-winning Kiwi winery Loveblock is leading the charge in wine innovation with a Sauvignon Blanc that is thought to be the first in the world to use green tea as a natural preservative in replacement of sulphur.

Instead of sulphur – the traditional preservative used in wine – green tea is used as a natural antioxidant to preserve Loveblock’s 2019 TEE Sauvignon Blanc. Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is known for its antioxidant properties, something that is being rediscovered and explored in various fields such as medicine, beauty, and now, as a new innovation in winemaking.

Green tea, which is a registered wine additive, is added at each stage of the winemaking process that sees the wine exposed to oxygen, including harvest, crush, float, racking after ferment, filtration and bottling.

Loveblock’s unique approach results in a sulphite free wine with lifted aromas of lemon verbena, saffron, orange peel and ruby red grapefruit, followed by a herbaceous layer and earthy cumin tones. Juicy white peach and citrus flavours complemented by fresh acidity round out the wine with a crisp, lingering minerality on the finish.

Made using grapes grown on Loveblock’s certified organic Awatere Valley vineyard, Loveblock TEE Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is also vegan-friendly and certified organic by BioGro.

Erica Crawford, Loveblock founder, is excited about the possibilities that new winemaking techniques such as this could present.

Read the full article here.

Supermarket News (September 2020)