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Buy OnlineWinery notes (2025 Vintage)
"2025 was an outstanding vintage, if not the greatest of all time: a perfect, settled summer and a calm autumn combined with healthy yields across our sites. Warm, steady ripening days and cool nights on Waiheke Island produced grapes with concentrated flavours, refined phenolics and bright fruit characters. Fruit was hand harvested from our dry grown, wind sheltered vineyard parcels and fermented separately on native yeasts in open top fermenters over a 30 day vat period to preserve site nuance.
The wines went to barrel for 16 months and following an adjusted élevage, were bottled in August 2026. To accommodate an earlier release, keeping up with demand, we altered cellar handling: components were blended earlier to stabilise the wine’s shape, select parcels underwent more frequent racking with measured aeration to gently soften tannins, and we retained a late, ‘wild’ malolactic fermentation to preserve texture and complexity.
Post ferment maturation took place in 500L French oak puncheons, with appropriate parcels ageing on gross lees to build mid palate weight. After final blending and integration, the wine returned briefly to oak prior to bottling.
The aroma is led by Cabernet Franc extremely lifted, floral and perfumed then underscored by dark cherry and bright red fruits. Graphite and a hint of olive tapenade thread through the bouquet, while aromatic cedar, ink and dried bay leaf add savoury complexity. A fine saline lift and a whisper of mineral dust keep the nose focused and precise.
On the palate the wine is both generous and poised. Dark fruit flavours blackberry, black plum and a streak of dark cherry are supported by polished, fine grained tannins and a fresh, mineral acidity that propels the palate forward. The cellar adjustments are evident: earlier blending and additional racking have produced an open-knit, supple texture in places, while the late wild malolactic fermentation contributes silkiness and depth to the mid palate. Oak support reads as cedar spice, roasted cocoa and subtle toasted vanilla rather than overt sweetness.
The finish is long and expressive, closing on layers of cassis, graphite and saline perfume with a trailing note of crushed black pepper. This vintage balances immediate charm with enduring structure approachable now with a little aeration yet built to evolve gracefully over the next 8–15 years as primary fruit folds into complex tertiary layers."
Reviews for previous vintages below…
17+/20 Richard Hemming MW, JancisRobinson.com, August 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"The cooler vintage emphasises a fresh tomato-leaf aroma as well as blackcurrant fruit. Rounded and smooth with mocha and smoke on the finish, as well as a touch of boot polish. Savoury and complex. Drinking well now, but ageable for another decade."
Rated Outstanding & 95/100 Cameron Douglas MS, November 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"An excellent bouquet of power and concentration, dark plums and blackberry fruits, lots of baking spices, smoky wood and new barrel scents. There’s an enticement from the synergy of aromas along with and earthy stony quality adding depth and intrigue. Full-bodied, dry, plenty of tannins and acidity delivery a taut and very youthful mouthfeel. Fruit flavours remain at the core with dark skinned plums and blackberry, there’s also chocolate and brown baking spices, a lick of salt, a long finish and complexity. Best drinking from 2028 through 2038."
93/100 Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review, December 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"Austere with subtle flavours with cocoa and violet, plum and blackberry framed with drying oak and tannin on a broad and very ripe palate with spicy alcoholic warmth. Clenched and unyielding, this needs time to come together as it is really fiercely tannic right now and very chewy. Under the drying structure and alcohol is a core of violet and even some crunchy blackcurrant leaf which bodes well for the wine once it can overcome its hard shell."
