TASTING NOTE
Black fruit and dark plum aromas seamlessly blend with subtle spicy notes in this smooth and silky Hawkes Bay Merlot. On the palate flavours of blackberry, cassis and hints of cocoa are balanced with fine tannins leading to a dry and richly textured finish.

WINEMAKING
Hand-harvested fruit was picked into small bins before being transported to the winery - where the grapes were lightly crushed and destemmed into open-top stainless steel fermenters. After a short cold soak period the must was warmed and inoculated with select yeast cultures. After inoculation the juice underwent a rapid fermentation with temperatures peaking at 33°C. Post-fermentation the resulting wine underwent a short maceration on skins before being pressed to old French oak barriques and undergoing a secondary malolactic fermentation. Once this was complete the wine was allowed to age in barrel for 10 months before being gently fined and prepared for bottling in late February 2019.

VITICULTURE
Hawkes Bay is New Zealand’s premium area for the production of full bodied red wines, in particular Bordeaux varieties. The 2017/2018 growing season started with good conditions during flowering in the spring with good yield levels seen going into summer. High summer sunshine hours and warm nights helped the grapes progress, however high levels of humidity meant the vineyard teams needed to be extra vigilant in order to control disease in the vines. Unusually high levels of rainfall in March and April also provided plenty of challenges, however the winery was delighted with the good quality fruit and excellent colour, concentration and ripe flavours seen at harvest.