Te Awa Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawke’s Bay

Description

Te Awa Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawke’s Bay Bin End.

Te Awa Single Estate wines are grown on a single site in the sacred Gimblett Gravels, allowing true expression of the classic Hawkes Bay varieties Chardonnay, Syrah and Bordeaux blends.

The Te Awa Merlot Cabernet is sourced from a selection of premium vineyard blocks off the estate vineyard. These vines are amongst the oldest on the property. The vineyard is located on free draining gravel soils especially suited to the growing of high quality Bordeaux varietals. Intensive management during the season has resulted in low yielding high quality fruit- parcels.

The hand-picked grapes were destemmed and tipped directly into open top fermenters. The grapes were then given a five day cold soak and allowed to warm up and ferment spontaneously with native vineyard yeasts. The young wine was then drawn off the skins and aged for 18 months in French oak barrels. The wine was racked once to blend in July and subsequently returned to barrels for a further five months of consolidation before bottling.

The Te Awa Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 2014  is a blend of 54% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc.