Escarpment allows individual vineyard expression from exceptional sites within the Martinborough region. The vines are planted to alluvial gravel terraces at the base of the Aorangi Ranges, the very hills made famous by the legendary Polynesian voyager who discovered New Zealand. In the search for the perfect site, Larry and Sue McKenna kept coming back to an area that offered the rich mix of elements required to grow and make the finest new world wines. The condusive mesoclimes surrounding the superlative Kupe Block stimulate vines and yield parcels of the finest Chardonnay, barrel fermented in a mix of new and seasoned oak followed by a judicious term of lees maturation.