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Hawke’s Bay is one of the hottest and sunniest areas in the country. Due to the warm maritime climate, long growing season, low rainfall, and high sunshine hours Hawke’s Bay is recognised world wide for the quality of its red wines. Our aim is to make full-bodied red wines that combine the inherent power, complexity and the elegance of ‘Bordeaux style’ reds and capture the distinctive personality of the Hawkes Bay terroir.
Winemaking notes
This is a single vineyard wine from a small vineyard located on Maraekakaho Road in the Ngatarawa Triangle. With our red blends, the grape juice is allowed to rest on its skins to extract the maximum flavour and colour from the fruit. The wine is then matured in new French oak barriques (40% new for the 2009 vintage) for an extended period of twelve months, adding a distinctive yet integrated oak character. Racking by hand also helps the wine to develop in flavour.
The grape varieties destined for the blend are matured separately, so that the winemaker can make a decision on the final blend proportions after all the components have matured. Each of the Bordeaux varieties develops differently from one vintage to the next depending on the weather conditions of the season. Hence, rather than the ideal blending proportions remaining constant they vary with each vintage. The challenge with blending is to recognise and respond to these changes to create the very best blend possible in each vintage.
Once the best lots (25% of our barriques) have been identified, extensive blending trials are completed to determine the optimal proportions of each variety that will be used to make up the final blend.
Description
This deep red wine is heady with aromas of ripe blackberries, blackcurrants, Black Doris plums and dark chocolate. Hints of spicy oak and subtle characters of cigar box and coffee add a touch of mystery. Intense flavours of ripe dark fruits are layered with fine fruit tannins and subtle oak character. The complex yet seductively smooth
