• Oaked
• Ripe plum & cherry
• Elegant spice
• Smooth mouthfeel

"It’s attractively ripe and fragrant on the nose showing dark cherry, thyme, cured meat and warm mushroom aromas. The palate delivers juicy fruit flavours together with silky texture and fine tannins, finishing smooth and polished. Friendly and approachable. At its best: now to 2024" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Mar 2022

Ruby red with bright red hues. Ripe plum, cherry and raspberry aromas with mushroom and spice. Succulent fruit with smooth mouthfeel with elegant spice and a dry finish.

The fruit for this wine is from the winemaker's Wairau valley estate vineyard with selected small parcels from the Awatere valley.

Despite the very dry conditions in 2020, vines fared far better than the summer of 2019, when a similarly low amount of rain fell in January and February. This season was drier for longer than the previous year, with just 43mm of rain between December 21 and April 21, compared to 185mm in a normal year – do we have those anymore? March with slightly cooler than average, but with warmer days and cool nights and almost no rainfall the growing season with slightly longer, and the temperature was cooler toward the end, which meant fruit had a fuller flavour. This was good news for grape growers, because it allowed fruit to ripen in ideal conditions without any disease pressure from botrytis bunch rot. Unlike 2019, the lower night temperatures of the 2020 vintage helped to retain acids – cool autumn nights are part of the magic of a Marlborough vintage (unless you’re on nightshift!).

The grapes were soaked in an open top fermenter at 8°c for 5 days to extract colour and flavour from the skins. The tank was warmed to allow for wild yeasts to start the fermentation process. The tank was capped at 32°c to allow optimal tannin extraction and colour. The cap was lightly plunged twice a day to keep the elegance and balance of this wine in check. After 5-7 days the ferment had finished, and the wine was drained off and the skins pressed. After a quick settling, the wine was racked to barrel where it was left to undergo a natural malolactic fermentation and maturation period of around 9 months. The wine was blended, lightly fined and crossflow filtered before bottling.

Food Pairing: A classic match for smoked salmon or barbequed lamb.