Quarter Acre Section Hawke's Bay Bordeaux Blend 2018

Description

Deep in colour, this blend is a dense mouthful with red and dark fruits, florals and dried herbs. The palate is full and plush with all important drinkability and balance. The tannins are fine and ripe and the finish is long. This wine shows a bright, youthful elegance but will benefit from careful cellaring.

Grapes for this wine were grown on hillside vineyards with views over the Tukituki river and old river terraces. The 2018 season was set up with a calm, hot summer and was followed by a warm Autumn. The vineyards are managed organically and vine yield was kept low.

Handpicked fruit was completely destemmed into open top tanks. Hot ferments with hand plunging produced a wine of great perfume, complexity and flavour. Primary ferment lasted for around nine days, then the wine was held on skins for up to 22 days. It was pressed and run to French oak barriques for winter before it went through malo in spring. The wine rested until blending on the 4th of July 2019. Each variety was kept separate until blending with the final blend comprising of 43% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Malbec and 4% Cabernet Franc.

The original concept behind the Quarter Acre brand was the tie in between smaller specialised blocks where the Quarter Acre grapes are grown and something quintessentially ‘kiwi’ (without being too kitsch) hence ‘Quarter Acre’ derived from the ‘Quarter Acre Section’ – the original kiwi dream. It was then decided that the new blend was going to be more than Merlot and Malbec, with a trial run with all varietals on the label but it looked ridiculous so it was decided that it needed a name instead hence ‘Section’ came about.

Contains sulphites. Traditional fining using egg white, traces may remain.