Allan Scott Hawke's Bay Merlot 2023

Description

Cherry, Oak, Spice

It’s splendidly ripe and fragrant with black Doris plum, sweet cherry, cedary oak, olive and subtle spice notes, leading to a beautifully weighted palate offering silken texture and fine polished tannins. Flavoursome and immediately appealing.

The fruit for this wine comes from a meticulously managed vineyard where specific leaf plucking, shoot and fruit thinning consistently produce outstanding grapes.

The grapes were harvested in the cool of the morning in perfect condition. The fruit was gently handled into the winery where it was cold-soaked for five days before a mixture of cultured and indigenous yeast were added for the primary fermentation. After the fermentation, the wine stayed on skins for five days before being pressed off, settled for two days then into French oak barrels for 10 months, during which time the wine went through malolactic fermentation. When complete the wine was gently pumped out of a barrel to stainless steel tanks where it was fined and filtered before bottling.

Food Pairing: Allan Scott Merlot is the perfect accompaniment to good strong cheese or barbequed meats. Best served at room temperature and given a little time to breathe.