• French oak
• Blackberry
• Dark chocolate
• Silky & rich

"A blend of 44% merlot, 40% cabernet sauvignon, 16% cabernet franc. Ripe, fine-grained red with cacao powder, dark berry/cassis/blackberry and spicy oak. A core of sweet fruit balances fine, grippy tannins leaving a pleasantly dry finish" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Aug 2023

A deep ruby red colour, with complex and dense aroma of, cassis blackberry blackcurrant, wild forest berries with fine cedar notes, oyster shell and graphite vanilla, baking spices, some cigar box notes and dark chocolate. The palate is silky and rich, with powerful mid palate tannins and concentrated blackberry, cassis, with a fine and long savoury finish. This wine will improve with cellaring. Recommended drinking from mid-2022 till 2033.

Sub blocks are selected at our Maraekakaho vineyard to grow low yield crops. Management for our high tier wines starts with pruning. The vines are manicured from then onwards, with crop thinning to one bunch per cane and a manual leaf pluck prior to veraison. The canopy is kept open to provide for airflow and sun exposure. At optimum ripeness we hand harvest selected rows.

Whole bunches are destemmed and pass through our optical grape sorting machine and then crushed to a closed fermenter. After a period of cold soak we inoculate with a preferred yeast. Temperatures are then managed to reach about 30°C. Malo-lactic conversion takes place during maceration in tank which can take up to 35 days. We aim for about 40% new French oak barriques, elevage in barrels can take up to 18 months with final barrel selection and blending prior to bottling. This wine was bottled without fining after a light filtration.