Puriri Hills Estate Clevedon Merlot Cabernet Blend 2013

Description

"The long-awaited release from a top vintage is a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec and cabernet franc grown on clay soils in a beautiful hillside vineyard. This is a ripe and elegant red with an array of subtle fruit flavours interwoven with hints of cedar and spicy oak. Restrained Bordeaux-like red that I find very appealing. Accessible now but with potential to grow even further with additional bottle age" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review

"The 2013 vintage is the best since 2010. Dark and highly fragrant, it is a very elegant, poised, youthful wine, with deep, plummy, spicy, nutty flavours, and obvious cellaring potential" Michael Cooper

Perhaps the boldest and most concentrated Estate release so far, inky purple in colour and offering up a generous bouquet of cedar, spice and bramble. Dense and chewy on the palate, with a sturdy structure that promises further development with bottle age. Tannins are beginning to resolve, but remain firm, giving this Estate a soft edge that enables for a myriad of food pairing options. A fine right-bank Bordeaux equivalent for a terrific price.

Puriri Hills' wines were originally inspired by the blends of St Emilion and Pomerol. Merlot and carmenére came from northern Italy as a clone of cabernet franc, but later genetic fingerprinting proved it to be carmenére. All fruit is grown and all wine procued on the estate overlooking the Hauraki Gulf at Clevedon, southeast of Auckland.