2023 River Flow - Merlot / Cabernet Franc

from $35.00

Merlot / Cabernet Franc

The first wines that really engaged us were the Cabernet and Merlot dominant blends of the Hawke’s Bay, shared with our mother in the late 90’s. She passed away shortly after.

We still have a few wines from that time. They tell a story and are incredibly ageless. So we felt compelled to take a modern spin to the Hawke’s Bay classic, red blend.

Making wine in Te Matau a Māui feels like we are going full circle, letting life flow to where it wants to go.

Bright crimson colour, red berries, spice, earth and bramble.

The palate is juicy and elegant with flavours of licorice and herbs. Medium weight with a great acid line.

Only 1560 bottles produced.

Pack Size:

Merlot / Cabernet Franc

The first wines that really engaged us were the Cabernet and Merlot dominant blends of the Hawke’s Bay, shared with our mother in the late 90’s. She passed away shortly after.

We still have a few wines from that time. They tell a story and are incredibly ageless. So we felt compelled to take a modern spin to the Hawke’s Bay classic, red blend.

Making wine in Te Matau a Māui feels like we are going full circle, letting life flow to where it wants to go.

Bright crimson colour, red berries, spice, earth and bramble.

The palate is juicy and elegant with flavours of licorice and herbs. Medium weight with a great acid line.

Only 1560 bottles produced.

 

Details

Raukawa

Our fruit comes from the Organic Paritua vineyard which sits on an old river bed formed by the braided Ngaruroro River. Vines planted in 2003, grow on gently rolling and flat land that lie beneath the limestone rich Raukawa hills.

Planted in 2003, the soils are made up of free draining “red metal” gravels overlaid by alluvium derived by loess, volcanic ash, greywacke and limestone.

Accompanied by high sunshine hours and low rainfall, this site is perfect for these varieties.

Season

La Nina dominated the 2023 growing season, creating volatile weather patterns, and a cool Spring and Summer period that never saw a day over 30 degrees. Late January and early February experienced some extremely wet periods culminating in cyclone Gabrielle. We were lucky that most of our vineyards escaped the worst and the vineyard guys were right on their game.

A somewhat Indian summer followed, which eased the pressure and allowed our fruit to ripen perfectly and slowly with fine and restrained flavours.

Winemaking

Merlot 51% - Cabernet Franc 49%

The Merlot fruit was destemmed directly to an open fermenter. After a few days, wild fermentation spontaneously started and progressed for 16 days with a maximum temperature of 27 deg C. Light plunging by hand occurred once a day.

The Cabernet Franc was picked a few days later and fermented as carbonic whole berries for a period of 14 days. Plunged once a day from day 6.

The varieties were pressed together to tank for a few days settling, before they were racked to puncheons and barrel to complete malolactic ferment and ageing for 8 months at cool temperatures.

No fining or filtration. Minimal sulphur was added two weeks before bottling.

Alc - 12.0%     

 
 
 

Bright crimson colour, red berries, spice, earth and bramble.

The palate is juicy and elegant with flavours of licorice and herbs. Medium weight with a great acid line.