This is a serious, multidimensional Merlot. The heart of this wine is its dense, brooding plum and dark berry fruit. This is complimented by lifted aromas reminiscent of roses, cedar, sandalwood and warm spice, while the oak delivers underlying dark chocolate and savoury notes. The palate is rich, weighty and long driven by a firm yet fine-grained tannin structure.

Great Merlot has feeling of weight and plushness on the palate whilst retaining fruit freshness and vibrancy. A hard grape to grow and make well, Merlot performs to the highest standard in only a handful of viticultural regions around the globe. One of those regions is Hawke’s Bay where it excels in the moderate climate, when grown with care and respect on the right soil types.

The fruit was de-stemmed and crushed and inoculated immediately. The ferments reached temperatures of 32°C and lasted approximately 5 days during which time the caps were gently broken up three times a day with short bursts of air (rummage). The wines spent between 3 and 5 weeks on skins with regular aeration (determined by daily tasting) before being drained and pressed. Press wine was separated into fractions and was blended back to each parcel if it offered a positive contribution. Post draining and pressing, the wine was filled to fine grained, 3 year seasoned oak barrels, of which 36% were new French and 3% new Hungarian. The balance was second and third fill French oak. The wine was matured on light lees for the first six months in barrel and after this each component was ‘racked and returned’ as required based on bimonthly tasting. This process involved taking the wine out of barrel off any lees (sediment)  and then returning to the cleaned barrels. During this process a degree of aeration can be achieved which assists with the positive evolution of tannin and aroma. Total barrel maturation time was 20 months. To retain the full weight and flavour, the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Food Pairing: This Merlot is well matched to game and red meats, cured meats and other savoury, robustly flavoured dishes. This Merlot typically evolves quite slowly over 10 or more years if cellared well. You can expect the wine to soften with time, while primary fruit will slowly give way to secondary complexities of leather, cigar box and warm earth.