(2024) Fermented in stainless steel, but this unfiltered cuvée is a selection of fruit. I am not sure if it sees a touch of oak, but if so, very much in the background. Dark dense and vivid purple. The nose has a little more brooding character than the more expressive entry level wine, but there's gloss and depth, a slightly more black-fruited character too with just a hint of sweet earth. In the mouth certainly more rounded and textural through the mid-palate, the fruit like blackberries and damsons with hints of smoke and spice. Still that good juiciness and enough tannic grip into the finish. 25,000 bottles were produced.
(2024) Made in Teliani's qvevri winery, in the clay amphora-like pots traditional to the region. Grapes from the village of Kisiskhevi in Kakheti are selected for this bottling, which has skins removed from the qvevri after nine days or so, before continuing to mature. The first thing that strikes as different is the herb and dried twig character of the aroma. These are light forest floor aromas, with a meaty and gamy undertone. In the mouth the fruit is dense and in the blackberry and damson plum spectrum, but that very dry character - twigs and briar again - has a completely different tannic structure, coating the mouth in dusty tannin with fine acid too. There is ripeness here, the mid-palate showing that, but the mouth-watering dry finish is striking. Only 6,500 bottles produced.
(2023) The Monastrell (Mourvèdre) is grown in certified organic vineyards at 700-900 metres above sea level. Vines are bush-trained and unirrigated so yields are naturally low. A new optical sorting system uses a system of cameras and computers to select only fruit in excellent condition - an expensive sign of a quality-conscious producer. The wines spends four to five months in American and French oak barriques, second and third fill. It has a little hint of transparency on the rim, suggesting a wine that's not too heavily extracted. Aromas are of fresh berries and spices, a hint of something like pomegranate as well as richer aromas. In the mouth this is really juicy and mouth-watering stuff, the fruit is ripe and sweet, but there's plenty of acidity and a grainy hint of tannin, the barrel ageing adding just a warming undercurrent.
(2023) Sweet with 133 g/l residual sugar. Great value blend of Furmint and Yellow Muscat (latter gives spearmint note). Tropical garden qualities of quince, apricot, pineapple and fig. Some botrytis. Excellent with spicy Asian food and cheese. (GD)
(2023) This is a dry Grand Cru Pinot Gris that opens with spice, pepper and florals atop pure orchard fruit. There's the merest hint of sweetness to the initial flavour, then such a pure, harmonious blend of rich, quite exotic nectarine, a bright orangey acidity, and shimmering length. A lovely Pinot Gris.
(2023) Restrained aromatically, with cool mint and soft hints of vanilla, but so much greengage and citrus, orange and lime peel in a complex nose. The palate is very harmonious, has a smoother character, and a hint of lusciousness. Holding up really well, the edges rubbed off by time - but not too much. Bottled November 2015. pH 3.18 and acidity 6.2g/l.
(2022) Soils for this wine are sandy loam over clay, the vines planted in 1994 and the wine wild-fermented and aged in barriques and larger barrels, 20% new. Eight months on the lees with full malolactic. There's a cool and slightly minty character here again, the overall impression cool and restrained. The fruit has a big, sour lemon and grapefruit attack, both fruit and acid. That drives this wine, subduing any idea of tropicality or sweetness, again salty and pithy in the finish in a lean and aesthetic wine.
(2020) Pale pink in colour, this is fine and aromatic, quite a punchy red fruit nose, and yet there is a light earthiness and yeastiness, something a little ozoney too, In the mouth crisp and crunchy, a bracing green apple twang of acidity against cool, tart raspberry and peach or apricot skins, that little hint of phenolics, and a long, very focused finish. Winemaker PJ Charteris was at pains to say he was not going for a 'pink' wine, more a 'light bronze'. I am guessing that's partly to do with the price: a £30+ New Zealand rosé would require a huge leap of faith from the purchaser. Fact is, athough an excellent wine, that price does seem steep compared to the A1, or indeed, A2.
(2020) A desire to make Bordeaux-style wines is one thing that fuelled Hans Herzog's move from Switzerland, and thankfully this is a beautiful blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Very juicy, intense, a nice level of green pepper and herbs from the Franc, meaty, nutty and a plummy too. Balsamic, plummy and very grippy, as always, strong acidity and very grippy tannins and concentration, but ripe and fine.
(2020) Four days of skin contact give this a pink-tinged, salmon/copper hint of colour, a yeastiness and taut, dry red berries and apple. The skin contact gives a lovely texture, and bone dry in the finish. Grapefruit pith and zesty fruit, long, intense, fascinating and fabulous.
