Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2020

Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2020"Theres no mistaking the complexity and completeness in the bouquet with purple flower and dark berry fruits, fresh and roasted Doris plums, blackberry then earth. Other aromas from baking spice to cacao from French oak add complexity and power. Taut, bold, firm, rich in flavours, textured and dry all touch the palate at once. Core fruits flavours of purple skinned fruits return, tannins are very firm, polished and in abundance needing cellar time to

"There’s no mistaking the complexity and completeness in the bouquet with purple flower and dark berry fruits, fresh and roasted Doris plums, blackberry then earth. Other aromas from baking spice to cacao from French oak add complexity and power. Taut, bold, firm, rich in flavours, textured and dry all touch the palate at once. Core fruits flavours of purple skinned fruits return, tannins are very firm, polished and in abundance needing cellar time to settle and integrate. Acidity keeps the wine lively and fresh, is also in abundance and will hold this wine in place for many years. Lengthy, complex and well made, a wine of provenance. Cellar please with best drinking likely from 2030 through 2050" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Aug 2023

"A 70/30 blend, from both the Redstone and Gimblett Vineyards in Hawke’s Bay. The nose is heady and sweet, with vanilla, lavender, graphite, and a peaty earthiness over that textbook black and red fruit. It has great weight to the palate and a brooding reticence at this stage. Power and depth is matched by a tightness through the palate, but a layer of ripe sweetness is clustered at the core, and is quietly persuasive. Lots of ying and yang in this youngster – acidity is precise and flowing, where the tannin is firm and grippy. A nice contrast of pepper and bitter chocolate to the long finish. I expect this to come together more in time, but there’s plenty to see in here already" David Walker-Bell, WineFolio, Sep 2023

A complex, dense wine with a core of dark berry fruit and plum, lifted by top notes of rosewood, cedar, lavender and vanilla. Beneath this a savoury dark earthy complexity and a thread of graphite and iron brings a more serious, brooding undertone to the wine. On the palate the wine is full bodied yet focused, with the fruit weight balanced by gentle acidity and a long, firm tannin structure. A wine of restrained power and great depth which will reward long term cellaring until 2030 – 2045.

2020 was an exceptional year in Hawke’s Bay, with warm, dry, settled weather over most of the season. A significant sustained drought period lasted from midsummer through until well after harvest was completed, allowing for all fruit to be harvested in optimum condition. The vines were trained to 2 cane VSP and we employed extensive shoot and fruit thinning, along with bunch positioning, declumping, close canopy trimming and 100% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly spaced and well exposed crop. Soil moisture was monitored regularly to regulate a deficit drip irrigation programme. This kept the vines in a functioning yet low vigour state that promoted both ripening and concentration. Approaching harvest time, we visited the blocks every 2 or 3 days, tasting, evaluating flavour and ripeness and checking for condition to ensure we picked at the ideal moment; our aim was to achieve a balance between density, power, freshness and precision in the resulting wines.

Selectively harvested in separate parcels, the fruit was then destemmed and crushed for fermentation. The fruit was immediately inoculated with a selected yeast strain. Fermentation was allowed to peak at 34 deg C ensuring good extraction of colour and ripe tannin. Each wine was tasted daily post fermentation to determine cap management, aeration requirements and to determine the optimum time to press off skins. Extended macerations are generally very positive on such high-quality fruit, and each tank had a total of 3 to 4 weeks on skins. Regular aeration during this time helped to stabilise colour, increase age-worthiness and integrate the tannin, while downplaying leafier notes and accentuating lifted ripe fruit and floral aromas. Once the wines reached an optimum level of evolution, they were drained and pressed before we filled French oak barriques (73% new) to complete malolactic fermentation and subsequent maturation for 18 months. The final blend was decided only after a rigorous barrel selection tasting of our very best components. The wine was racked for clarity and bottled without fining, cold stabilisation or filtration.