"From their Mere Road Vineyard in the Gimblett Gravels district, the wine shows lovely fruit purity and vibrancy, displaying dark plum, blueberry, floral and toasted hazelnut characters on the nose, followed by a juicy palate that is flavoursome and rounded. Well proportioned and charming with plenty of attractive fruit flavours. At its best: now to 2021" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec 2017

"Dark, deep, even ruby-red colour with slight purple-black hues on the rim.  The nose is fresh and vibrant with elegantly concentrated aromas of redcurrants and dark-red plum fruit, entwined with subtle notes of dark herbs and a suggestion of iron-earth elements.  Medium-full bodied, the palate has bright and lively fruit flavours of dark red berries, redcurrants and plums, along with dark herbs.  The fruit is sweet and rich, and is underlined by fine-grained, powdery tannin extraction with integrated acidity.  The fruit forms a linear core and carries to a sustained finish of dark-red berry and curranty fruit.  This is a bright and vibrant Merlot with dark-red berry and redcurrant flavours, along with plum and herb notes on a fine-textured palate.  Match with roast lamb, beef or venison over the next 5-6 years." Raymond Chan

This is a rich and complex Hawke’s Bay Merlot. The oak is in balance and respects the wine’s structure and character. There is nice intensity on the front palate with very good tannins that are quite firm at bottling, but which will soften with time. The wine is harmonious, showing balance and softness.

This Merlot was selected from two blocks on our vineyard on Mere Road. Extensive fruit thinning was applied to the vines prior to veraison. This ensured mature grapes.

The fermentations were managed with minimal pump overs to avoid over-extracting the grapes. When the fermentations were complete there followed a period of post fermentation maceration to develop the mouth feel of the young wines. After pressing the wines underwent MLF in tank before transfer to French oak barrels for maturation. After maturation for 12 months the wine was tasted and blended before assembly then fined with egg whites.