TASTING NOTES
Colour: Deep crimson to ruby red, with a bright clarity.
Nose: Lifted cherry, blackcurrant and spiced plum fruit flavours, with savoury hints from the toasted oak char.
Palate: This wine is particularly suited to game dishes such as duck, rabbit or venison.
Cellaring: 1-5 years
Serve: Room temperature
Suggested Foods: This wine is particularly suited to game dishes such as duck, rabbit or venison.
VITICULTURE & WINEMAKING
Grapegrowers: Sea Level Vineyard
Locality: Coastal Highway, Mariri, Nelson, New Zealand
Specifications:
Alcohol: 13.0%
Residual Sugar: 3.0g/L
pH: 3.42
Titratable Acidity: 6.8g/L
VITICULTURE
Climate: The season started with a very dry late winter and early spring. The temperatures were similar to the long term average, but varied greatly with a number of warm days followed by cold spells. Colder conditions over flowering resulted in average yields. In late December, the climate became very warm and dry, ideal conditions for ripening. The fruit was picked at optimum flavour levels, just before a period of heavy rain.
Soils: Gravel-threaded Moutere clay
Training: Standard vertical trellis
Harvest Date: 21st March, 2015
WINEMAKING
The grapes were hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard. At the winery these grapes were de-stemmed only to retain large proportion of whole berries. A two-three day cold soak was followed by a warm ferment with regular hand plunging to gently extract the colour and flavour from the skins. After fermentation, the heavy pressings were separated and the wine matured in French oak barrels for 16 months. 40% of these barrels were new. This wine was bottled on the 9th August, 2013
