Man O' War Kulta Series 'TYTTI' Waiheke Island Bordeaux Blend 2018

Description

• French oak
• Black plum & red berry
• Cedar spice & olive
• Soft & harmonious

"A wine with huge potential, is cellar worthy, but also drinkable today if decanted and rested for several hours first. Made with a nod to the right-bank of Bordeaux style - Aromas and flavours of dark berries and spices, plums and violets. There’s an umami seam adding palate richness as well as complexity. A core of dark berries, olive and spices, a herbal - Waiheke signature then a swing back to fruits an oak. A wine with power and intensity, firm tannins - ripe, plentiful acidity and a tense, young lengthy finish" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Jan 2021

Pronounced “too-tee” the 2018 Tytti blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot is a wine of classic styling reminiscent of the wines of Pomerol. Lifted red berry fruit aromas leap out but are married to darker more brooding notes of black plum, olive, cedar spice and an earthy scent. The initial palate is soft and harmonious but underpinning the whole expression is a fresh, stony minerality contributing the most incredible elegance and sublime harmony with an extraordinary potential to age.

The fruit for the 2018 Tytti Bordeaux style blend comes from an area on the Estate that is known as Death Valley. A number of incredibly steep, dry farmed hillside vineyards of Cabernet franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot run down small blocks snaking through the valley each exposed to maximise the sun and sheltered from the wind. Hand harvested and carefully graded in the winery, the fruit is completely destemmed into vat and left for ambient temperature pre ferment soak with minimal irrigation pumpovers to keep the must fresh. The wild yeasts initiate the fermentation around the third day and a hot and vigorous fermentation is carefully managed and left in vat for 30 to 40 days. The wines are gently pressed off to barrel where they stay for on gross lees for 20 months with one racking to blend.