Colour:
Dense ruby red with a purple rim.
Aroma:
Dark black fruits with chocolate aromas and mixed Christmas cake spice, new leather and toasted oak.
Palate:
Rich and full-bodied Merlot with layered flavours of mixed ripe berries, wild blackberries and blackcurrants. Generous on the palate with subtle fruit sweetness, a silky tannin structure and a long toasty finish.
Ageing Potential:
This wine is drinking well now and will continue to develop for up to five years from vintage date.
Viticulture:
The outstanding fruit was sourced from certain selected vineyards on the Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district in Hawke’s Bay. The vigour moderating, free draining gravel based soils provide a superb base for the low cropping Merlot. These vineyard sites have ideal ripening conditions for achieving the ripe berry aromatics and balanced tannin structure that Saint Clair Merlot exhibits. The fruit was carefully monitored during ripening and harvested in the cool evening at maximum flavour maturity and physiological ripeness.