Mystery Hawke's Bay Merlot 2022

Description

Cherry, Oak, Plum

"Sweetly fruited and fragrant, the wine shows dark plum, thyme, toasted spice and almond notes on the nose, followed by a fruit-forward palate delivering juicy fruit flavours with silky mouthfeel, finishing succulent and tasty. At its best: now to 2027" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Mar 2024

This Merlot incorporates bold flavours that are bound to set your taste buds alight. Vibrant aromas of spiced plum cake with liquorice undertones. The palate is brimming with layers of delicious blackcurrant, cherry and cinnamon, a fine tannin line lingers on the finish.

This Mystery Merlot spent the majority of the 2022 growing season closely monitoring our Merlot grapes, waiting patiently for the fruit to reach optimum ripeness and flavour potential. The grapes for this expressive and inviting Merlot was machine harvested in mid-March and bought swiftly to the winery.

The fruit was held cold soaked for 5 days to extract colour from the skins before going to a warm fermentation in stainless-steel vessels. The wine was inoculated, plunged, and pumped over to extract the seductive deep ruby colour and tannin. Skins were kept in contact until the merlot reached a perfect balance of flavours and structure before it was racked to barrel for a secondary malolactic fermentation and aging in barrel.