• French oak
• Bramble
• Raspberry
• Poised

"This wine is thrilling: dusty cassis, bramble, raspberry pip, blood/iodine, sweet tobacco, raw cocoa, violet perfume, tarragon and fennel and a hint of hazelnut/nutmeg. This will evolve beautifully in bottle. I love it. It is a magnificent wine and a tremendous value" Erin Larkin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Jan 2025

"Wonderfully composed and expressed… harmonious and expressive… a magnificent Bordeaux-style red that’s beautifully crafted and splendidly structured, making it hugely appealing" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jan 2025

"Plum, raspberry, boysenberry... nutty and pencilly, with some floral notes, aniseed and spice... tobacco, a bit of grainy chew to the tannin, the line of acidity is so lovely and crisp - rain-washed and fresh - offering a distinct 'mineral' character. Length is excellent. It has perfume and presence... lovely wine to drink" Gary Walsh, Dec 2024

With a gleaming crimson core and ruby rim, Awatea Cabernets/Merlot ’23 is enticingly perfumed with blackberry, bay, violets, and vanilla. The satisfying palate is detailed, poised and texturally rewarding, interplaying plum, black olive and sandalwood notes with salinity, refreshing acidity and bright tannin length. It has a captivating elegance that is classically Te Mata. Awatea Cabernets/Merlot ’23 is closed with a Diam cork, allowing continued evolution in bottle for 10 years from harvest.

Awatea takes its name from the historic ship SS Awatea (a Maori word meaning ‘Eye of the Dawn’) that sailed the Auckland – Sydney – Wellington route in the late 1930s. The Awatea was requisitioned as troop transport in WWII and was sunk off Algeria in 1942.

The grapes for Awatea Cabernets/Merlot ’23 were hand harvested from Te Mata Estate’s Hawke’s Bay vineyards between 4 and 18 April 2023.

The separate parcels of grapes were destemmed before a traditional warm-plunged fermentation and extended maceration on skins. The resulting wines were then run to new and seasoned French oak barrels for 15 months. Throughout this time, they were regularly topped and racked. The separate wines were blended in October 2023, then returned to barrel for their second winter. The finished wine was then egg white fined and bottled in November 2024. The final blend is 33% cabernet sauvignon, 52% merlot and 15% cabernet franc.