The 2014 Reserve Merlot reveals a saturated deep purple colour and perfumed aromatics of red and black plum, fruitcake and floral violet notes, interwoven with roasted coffee bean and complex herb nuances. The palate is concentrated and firmly structured in its youth with fine-grained tannins enhanced by integrated oak. This wine will certainly benefit and gain additional complexity from careful cellaring over the next decade.

2014 in Hawkes Bay was simply a superb red wine vintage and a very welcome follow-up to the highly acclaimed 2013 vintage. The region was treated to one of the warmest growing seasons in recent records (warmer than 2013) with intermittent rainfall events, enough to encourage vine health and flavour development without bringing on disease. Typical Hawkes Bay nights moderated daytime temperatures allowed for steady sugar and flavour accumulation across Merlot vineyards. Picking decisions were based around flavours and the resulting fruit was clean, ripe and full of flavour.

The fruit for this wine was grown entirely on the gravelly soils of the Gimblett Gravels growing region in Hawkes Bay. Villa Maria's different vineyards contribute small parcels of exceptional fruit, each with their own unique characteristics. The free draining soils of these sites help ensure balanced fruit and canopy growth which is essential for ripe flavours and tannin development. Yields are cropped low allowing vines to produce fruit that is richly concentrated in colour, flavour and structure.