• French oak
• Violets & spice
• Medium bodied
• Integrated tannins

"Dense, almost inky red with intense, ripe black Doris plum, cassis, dark chocolate, cherry and smoky oak flavours. Youthful wine with a promising future. The product of an excellent vintage. Great value at this price" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Oct 2023

"A really enticing bouquet and palate with ripe dark red berry fruit scents, blackcurrant and dark raspberry flesh, some light weight peppery spices, toasty barrel and wood smoke moments and a generous fleshy texture. Tannins are youthfully taut and fine with medium+ acidity setting a decent foundation for ripe fruit flavours. Well made, balanced and ready to drink from 2022 through 2027" Cameron Douglas Master Sommelier, Feb 2023

Deep purple and crimson hues lead to a perfumed nose of violet, black fruit, herb and anise spice aromas. The palate is medium-bodied, supple and silky in texture, featuring wonderfully integrated tannins. Pure fruit flavours lead the wine to a lengthy finish.

The wine is a blend of Villa Maria’s Gimblett Gravels vineyards, where free draining soils temper vine vigour, resulting in low yields of ripe and concentrated fruit.

2021 was an exceptional Hawkes Bay vintage, following on beautifully from the previous two vintages of excellent growing conditions. Warmer than average temperatures and low rainfall encouraged fruit across the region to achieve optimum ripeness and maintain excellent condition through the harvest.

The fruit was picked and gently destemmed without crushing into open-top fermenters for fermentation with daily plunging to extract flavour, colour and tannin. Once pressed the wine was matured in 228L French oak barriques of which 18% were new, for 12 months prior to blending and bottling.

Food Pairing: Enjoy with game such as Venison or Duck.