Esk Valley Winemakers Reserve Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Malbec Cabernet Franc 2018

Description

• French oak
• Cherry & plum
• Sage & dried herbs
• Supple tannins

This Winemakers Reserve blend is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's finest red wines with a pedigree that stretches back to 1990. The wine is deeply coloured and mouthfilling with firm but supple tannins. Black olive, cherry, red plum, sage and dried herb flavours are complemented by an overlay of cedar from barrel maturation. This a complex and age-worthy wine.

This wine is a blend of grapes grown in the stony soils of the Gimblett Gravels. The vines in the Cornerstone and nearby Ngakirikiri Vineyard were planted between 1994 and 2014 and cropped at low levels to produce grapes of the highest possible quality. Intensive viticultural practises such as shoot thinning, leaf plucking and bunch thinning were all employed over the course of the growing season to further maximise quality.

The individual parcels were hand-harvested and destemmed to open-topped concrete tanks for fermentation with wild yeasts. Once active the ferments were hand plunged to gently extract colour and tannin. After a period of post-fermentation maceration on skins, the ferments were pressed to barrel for malolactic fermentation. The wine was then aged for a further 16 months in French oak before bottling in December 2019.