Church Road 1 Single Vineyard Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

Description

Oak, Spice, Vanilla

Full of opulent dark berry fruit, with a brooding, warm earthiness and graphite bring a dark seriousness. This is supported by the lifted aromatics of perfectly ripe cabernet; notes of florals and fragrant wood suggestive of Rosewood, cedar, lavender and violet and thyme. Layered and complex with a supple mid palate and powerful, fine grained tannin driving great length. With careful cellaring, we expect this wine will age gracefully for 15 years or more.

Situated in the renowned Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District, this is an area of very free draining alluvial gravels, this soil type is some of the lowest vigour, lowest nutrient soil in Hawkes Bay, restricting vine growth and water uptake and resulting in meagre crops of intensely flavoured fruit. The area is only 30m above sea level, and far enough inland to be relatively well protected from the sea breeze, making this one of the warmest areas in Hawke’s Bay ideally suited to red winegrowing. This vineyard tends to produce wines with a core of dark fruit and a firm tannin structure that brings length, drive and great longevity.

2020 was an exceptional year in Hawke’s Bay, with warm, dry, settled weather over most of the season. A significant sustained drought period lasted from mid-summer through until well after harvest was completed, allowing for all fruit to be harvested in optimum condition. The vines were trained to two cane VSP and we employed extensive shoot and fruit thinning, along with bunch positioning, declumping, close canopy trimming and 100% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly spaced and well exposed crop. Soil moisture was monitored regularly to regulate a deficit drip irrigation programme. This keeps the vines in a functioning yet low vigour state that promotes both ripening and concentration. Approaching harvest time, we visit the blocks every two or three days, tasting, evaluating flavour and ripeness and checking for condition to ensure we pick at the ideal moment, aiming to achieve a balance between density, power, freshness and precision in the resulting wines.

Blocks were selectively harvested across a sorting table to remove any green material before being crushed to fermenters. Fermentation was allowed to peak at 34 deg C ensuring good extraction of colour and ripe tannin. The wines were allowed to undergo post fermentation maceration for a total time on skins of between three and four weeks. During this time regular aeration was employed to stabilise colour, integrate the tannin and open up the aromatics. We taste daily to determine the amount of aeration and to determine the optimum time to drain and press. The wine was then filled to French and Hungarian oak barriques to complete malolactic fermentation and subsequent maturation for 19 months. New Oak (all French) was kept to a modest 29%, providing support while allowing the terrior to shine. The final blend was decided only after a rigorous barrel selection tasting of our very best Gimblett Road Vineyard components. The wine was racked for clarity and to avoid any unnecessary stripping effect and was bottled without any fining or filtration.