Crossroads Milestone Series Hawke's Bay Merlot 2020

Description

• Plum & Cassis
• Spice
• Supple tannins
• Rich finish

Concentrated notes of plum, dark berries and underlying cassis and warming spice. The palate is soft with finely balanced supple tannins and a rich lingering finish.

For over 20 years, Crossroads has represented the very best of small parcel winemaking. The Crossroads Milestone Series celebrates their dedication from the vineyard to the winery – creating benchmark wines from New Zealand.

They were incredibly lucky to be able to continue to create these wines during the global pandemic crisis. For this reason, otheir 2020 wines carry some very unique memories. The 2020 Hawkes Bay growing season started earlier than usual, and was relativity dry except for light spring rains. Disease pressure was low and temperatures were slightly cooler than usual, maintaining beautifully clean fruit with natural balance and concentration. This Merlot was picked in excellent condition, achieving ripe tannins and concentrated flavour.

The low yielding Merlot was harvested and de-stemmed directly into a mixture of open and closed fermenters. A traditional warm fermentation followed with regular pump overs to help craft a wine with elegance and balance. The fruit remained on skins after fermentation to build structure and mouthfeel, it was then gently pressed, settled and racked to stainless steel tanks to undergo malolactic fermentation. After aging with a range of oak, it was then blended, stabilised and filtered prior to bottling.

Food Pairing: Enjoy with barbequed red meats, hearty stews or dark chocolate.