Esk Valley The Terraces 2019

Description

Esk Valley The Terraces 2019 is a testament to Hawke’s Bay’s potential for producing world-class Bordeaux-style blends. It is the estate’s flagship blend. Only released in the best years, 2019 is only the 16th vintage of The Terraces to be released since the first in 1991.

Esk Valley Estate started trading under the Esk Valley name in 1987, having been an established wine company since the 1930’s, when Sir George Fistonich (who also founded Villa Maria back in 1961) purchased the historic Glenvale Winery from the Bird Family in 1986. The estate is located in the heart of the Hawke’s Bay wine-growing region. The estate has been owned by Indevin since 2021.

Esk Valley’s winemakers continue to apply the same techniques used in the original Bay View winery established in 1933. This includes fermentation with wild vineyard yeasts, long-term lees ageing, hand plunging and stirring. The red wines are fermented in concrete fermenters that are exact replicas of the historic tanks in the original winery. The layout of the buildings and the absence of modern technology mean the winemakers at Esk Valley have had to make wine in a simple, honest, hands-on way. However, in 2018, Esk Valley relocated its winemaking operation to an all new site situated in the Gimblett Gravels winegrowing District of Hawkes Bay. Interestingly, the indigenous yeast from the original winery site was captured and transplanted inland to the new site and added to the waiting ferments, thus intertwining the DNA of old and new.

Esk Valley Wines has also been instrumental in introducing innovative grape varieties to Hawke’s Bay, such as Albarino and Verdelho, expanding the region’s winemaking horizons. While primarily known for their exceptional red wines, especially those from the esteemed Gimblett Gravels, Esk Valley also produces outstanding Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Riesling sourced from vineyards in Marlborough.

The individual plots of Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc for the Esk Valley The Terraces 2019 were harvested together and processed as a field blend, as they have since 2001. The grapes were hand harvested, sorted and destemmed to a single concrete vat for fermentation with wild yeast. Hand plunging was employed for cap management and the finished wine was aged in French oak barriques (100% new) for 18 month, 2 months in tank pre-bottling, before being bottled without filtration.

The 2019 Terraces is a blend of Malbec 42%, Merlot 28%, Cabernet Franc 25% and Cabernet Sauvignon 5%.