Esk Valley Heipipi 'The Terraces' Malbec Merlot Cabernet Franc 2020

Description

Oak

This is a handcrafted wine with much effort made to produce a wine of elegance that is a true expression of its site. The wine is deeply coloured with seductive aromas of dark berries and Christmas cake spice. As a young wine, the primary fruit is complemented with complexing notes of cedar and pencil shavings. With time the vibrant flavours and firm tannins in the wine will soften and meld together as complexity and vineyard nuances start to predominate. This wine has been sealed with a screw cap to guarantee the quality of each bottle and offer even greater cellaring potential.

The Terraces Vineyard is perched on the steep north-west orientated hillside above the old Esk Valley winery site near Bay View in the North of Hawkes Bay. This sunny, sheltered site was originally planted in the 1940s and re-established with its current plantings in 1989. It occupies approximately one hectare and is planted with Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc which is harvested and fermented together as a field blend. The soils are complex with low fertility, containing layers of seashell and limestone, interspersed with clay and volcanic ash. The vines are spur-pruned, thinned to one bunch per shoot and hand harvested.

The individual plots of Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Merlot were harvested together and processed as a field blend, as they have since 2001. The grapes were hand harvested, sorted and destemmed to a single concrete vat for fermentation with wild yeast. Hand plunging was employed for cap management and the finished wine aged in French oak barriques (67% new) for 18 months before being bottled without fining or filtration.