Winemaker:
Matt Thomson, Hamish Clark and Kyle Thompson

Colour:
Dark and inky with purple hues.

Aroma:
Aromatic ripe plum with fresh blackberry, coffee, and hints of blackcurrant bud and floral notes.

Palate:
A delicious blend displaying ripe plum, wild blackberry and chocolate. A full and round palate with fine powdered tannins, spicy oak, and fresh coffee to finish.

Ageing potential:
Drinking well now, this wine will continue to develop for up to five years from vintage date or longer with careful cellaring.

Winemaking:
This wine is a blend of 66.7 per cent Cabernet, 20 per cent Merlot and 13.3% Malbec. Each variety was kept separate during fermentation through to blending. The fruit for each variety was held cold for four days prior to ferment to help extract maximum flavour and to enhance colour stability. Inoculation took place to carry out the primary alcoholic fermentation during which the fermenting must was hand plunged up to four times daily. When dry the young wine was pressed and then racked off gross lees to a mix of tanks, 33% new French oak and older French oak. The wine underwent a clean malolactic fermentation while ageing in oak and tank for 11months. Trials of various portions of each variety took place before careful blending to create the final wine.

Viticulture:
This outstanding fruit was sourced from vineyards within the Gimblett Gravels wine growing district of Hawke’s Bay. The vigour moderating, free draining gravel provides a superb base for growing the varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The fruit was carefully monitored during ripening and harvested in the cool evening at maximum flavour maturity and physiological ripeness.

Wine Analysis:
Alcohol: 13.5% v/v, Titratable Acidity: 5.3g/litre, pH: 3.61.

Food match:
Well matched with wild duck or venison.