Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Gamay from La Ferme de Sato, a windswept hillside vineyard at Pisa, Central Otago
La Ferme de Sato is the Satos' own vineyard at Pisa, on a hill above the lake in the Cromwell basin. Central Otago is New Zealand's southernmost wine region, with a dry, continental climate. In winter, fog often fills the basin below while the vineyard sits in sunshine.
The soils are alluvial sandy and silt loams with schist and quartz gravel. Block 2 carries the most schist, while the windy top of Block 5 is sandier and paler, with more quartz and sandstone gravel. The site is exposed to strong winds, which keep Chardonnay bunches small at the top of the hill.
Yoshiaki and Kyoko Sato were bankers in Japan and London before moving to New Zealand in 2006 to study viticulture and oenology at Lincoln University. Both went on to work at Felton Road in Central Otago, Yoshiaki until 2009 and Kyoko until 2019, with vintages alongside Bernhard Huber, Philippe Pacalet, Jean-Yves Bizot and Pierre Frick.
Sato Wines began in 2009 as a négoce label, buying fruit from Bannockburn and Bendigo, while Yoshiaki was also winemaker at Mount Edward until 2012. In 2016 they began planting their own three-hectare vineyard, La Ferme de Sato, below Mount Pisa on the west side of the Cromwell Basin, and finished a small winery there in 2019.
The two do all the vineyard and cellar work themselves. Wines move by gravity rather than pumps, grapes are pressed in a hand-cranked basket press, ferments are wild with sulphites the only addition, and every wine is bottled without fining or filtration.