KENZIE RIVERFLOW CABERNET FRANC / MERLOT 2024

Winery notes (2024 Vintage)
"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. 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, blackberry, spice, earth and bramble. The palate is juicy and elegant with flavours of licorice and herbs. Medium weight with a great acid line and fine tannins. Only 1536 bottles produced.

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.

The Merlot fruit was destemmed directly to an open fermenter. After a few days, wild fermentation spontaneously started and progressed for 20 days with a maximum temperature of 30 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 17 days. Plunged once a day from day 4. The varieties were pressed together to tank for a few days settling, before they were racked to puncheon and barrel to complete malolactic ferment and ageing for 8 months at cool tempereatures. No fining or filtration. Minimal sulphur was added a few months before bottling."