A love of the classic blend and the founders vision created The Aviator. Released only in the best years and made from our finest parcels.A complex aroma of berry fruits, cassis, cedar, and damson plum. Sweet, rounded flavours of blackberry and currants, mocha, and savoury spice notes are complimented by fine oak tannin. This wine shows a silken texture and firm structure. Cabernet Sauvignon dominant with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. This is a very elegant but powerful wine, showing lovely delicacy and depth. 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc, 12% Merlot, 11% Petit Verdot, 4% Malbec. It's already very approachable and will develop gracefully for many years. Cellaring will further soften the tannin while increasing integration of oak flavours with added layers of complexity from bottle age. 10 years + potential.

From our origins in 1989, establishing both vineyard and winery, Alpha Domus was a pioneer in the renowned Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District of Hawke’s Bay. New Zealand family owned, we have always been inspired to create beautiful wines of worth; the importance of quality and expert craftsmanship paramount. Alpha is derived from the first initials of the founding family members names in age descending order, Anthonius, Leonarda, Paulus, Henrikus and Anthonius, Domus is Latin for home.

All grapes used for the Aviator are grown with a specific target in mind. Vines are pruned to lower bud numbers, and no manual labour is spared in the vineyard. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, lateral and bunch thinning are just a few of the passes we make through the vineyard.

The grapes were brought into the winery at perfect ripeness where traditional Bordeaux winemaking practices are combined with methods that enhance the best of our Hawke’s Bay terroir. After extended skin contact the wine was pressed off to complete malolactic fermentation in barrel, 36% new, 100% French oak. Barrels were kept separate during maturation to give greatest blending possibilities, both from vineyard batches as well as oak influences. Final maturation time in oak was 24 months. The wine was then carefully blended to tank and bottled with minimal intervention.