• Dark plum 
• Black cherry
• Wonderfully composed 
• Dried herb

"Gorgeous nose; it’s fabulously expressed on the nose showing dark plum, black cherry and toasted almond characters with a dried herb nuance. The palate displays lovely weight and fruit purity together with discreet oak infusion, beautifully supported by fine texture and polished tannins. A wonderfully composed Bordeaux-style offering stunning value" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Feb 2020

Bright, intense magenta, with ripe wild blackberry, red plum, cherry cedar and rosemary all jumping from the glass, Estate Vineyards Cabernets/Merlot ’18 is fresh, rich and fruit-driven. The palate shows notes of ripe cherry, date and blackcurrant with an even and sustained weight throughout. Consistently overdelivering, Estate Vineyards Cabernets/Merlot ’18 remains an ode to balance, ripeness and modern Hawke’s Bay fruit-purity. Estate Vineyards Cabernets/Merlot ’18 will continue to evolve in bottle for three to six years from harvest.

The grapes for Estate Vineyards Cabernets/Merlot ’18 were harvested between 21 March and 20 April 2018 from Te Mata Estate’s own vineyards in the Bridge Pa Triangle, Havelock Hills and Woodthorpe Terraces sub-regions of Hawke’s Bay.

The individual parcels of each variety, from each plot, were de-stemmed before a traditional warm fermentation, followed by extended maceration on skins. The resulting wines were pressed, returned to tank for malolactic fermentation, then run off to a mixture of new and seasoned French oak barrels for 11 months’ maturation before blending. The wines were regularly topped and racked, throughout maturation, blended and traditionally egg-white fined before bottling. The final blend is 47% cabernet sauvignon, 37% merlot, 16% cabernet franc.

Food Pairing: Estate Vineyards Cabernets/Merlot ’18 is a wonderful accompaniment to hard cheeses and anything that once lived in a field.