Colour:
Dark ruby red with a purple rim.

Aroma:
Layered fruits of ripe boysenberry, black plum and raspberry leaf.

Palate:
A full bodied wine with generous offerings of black plum and boysenberry. The palate is rich and underpinned by spiced cedar wood with a fine tannin structure.

Ageing potential:
Drinking well now this wine will continue to develop and impress for up to five years from vintage date.

Winemaking:
Grapes were de-stemmed into small stainless steel fermenters for a five-day cold soak to help maximise flavour and colour extraction. The juice was inoculated with specialised yeast to complete fermentation and then hand plunged and pumped over for gentle extraction of flavour colour and tannin. The young wine was kept in contact with skins and tasted daily until the right extraction and balance was achieved then gently pressed. Once settled it was then racked to seasoned French oak where it underwent secondary fermentation (malolactic fermentation). After ageing on light lees the wine was blended, fined, balanced and carefully prepared for bottling.

Viticulture:
Fruit was harvested from a number of specifically chosen, naturally low cropping vineyards from both Marlborough’s Wairau Plain and the Hawke’s Bay winegrowing district. The vineyards were carefully monitored as they ripened to full maturity and harvested early-April.

Wine Analysis:
Alcohol 13.5% v/v Acidity 5.5g/litre pH 3.58

Food match:
A perfect match for beef bourguignon with sweet potato.