Peter Yealands Hawkes Bay Merlot Rosé 2015

Description

Bursting with Juicy red summer berries on the nose with underlying ones of plum. The palate has gentle and balanced tannins, with a refreshingly fruity berry finish.

Food Match: Enjoy with this wine chilled, with a picnic basket filled with your favourite summer snacks.

2015 was the third great Hawke’s Bay vintage in a row. We had a temperate and dry spring setting slightly below average yields. The summer was warm and dry with cool nights, and the fruit developed with small berries and good flavours leading into harvest. Cyclone pam was predicted to cause havoc in mid-March but ended up only wetting the dry soils. The Merlot was harvested a week later in great condition. The wines this harvest are characterised by their freshness and elegance with good flavours and moderate alcohols.

The Merlot was de stemmed, chilled then soaked on the skins briefly in the press to extract an attractive pink hue. The fruit was then pressed off to a stainless steel tank and left to settle for two days. Once settled, the clear juice was racked off and warmed before being inoculated with a yeast specially selected to enhance fresh and lifted fruity aromatics. A cool fermentation took place over 19 days. The wine was then racked, stabilised and filtered before bottling.