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Buy Online96/100 "This is comparable to a high-ranked Cru Classé Bordeaux, at a fraction of the price." – Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
95+/100 "Here’s a pretty serious and structured Awatea, and it’s one of the best releases to date." – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
95/100 "It’s all here, and shows such an enticing texture." – James Suckling
The 2024 Awatea shows a distinct difference to Coleraine this year, but in all the right ways. Whereas Coleraine is a seamless, composed wine, Awatea this year shows a little more attitude and its own bold confidence – This should be everyone's cellar!
Far from being in the shadow of Coleraine, Te Mata Awatea is a superb wine in its own right. A New Zealand classic that has the win-win of being wonderfully perfumed and delicious in its youth but also carries the ability to age gracefully for over a decade, not to mention the more modest price tag, making it excellent value.
It's a wine you wish you could have an endless supply of due to the wonderful balance of ripe fruit, acidity, beautiful tannins and immense drinkability. It will no doubt find many fans this year, and at under $50, you are getting a stunning wine at a fraction of the price of an equivalent Bordeaux, and one that showcases why Te Mata is putting New Zealand wine on the world map.
Winery notes (2024 Vintage)
"Bright crimson with a royal purple edge, Awatea ’24 glows in the glass with youthful poise and vitality. The aroma is refined and perfumed, offering blackberry, dark plum, cassis, redcurrant, and dark cherry with layers of thyme, cedar, tapenade and a gentle floral lift. The palate is generous and seamless, with black plum and blackberry carried by silky, ripe tannins and a savoury umami thread of black truffle, spice and plum sauce. The finish is long, polished and mouth-watering, revealing clarity, balance, and a classical Awatea with depth and graceful evolution ahead.
The separate parcels of grapes were destemmed before a traditional warm-plunged fermentation and extended maceration on skins. The resulting wines were then run to new and seasoned French oak barrels for 17 months, with 28% being new oak. Throughout this time, they were regularly topped and racked. The separate wines were blended in November 2024, then returned to barrel for their second winter. The finished wine was then fined and bottled in November 2025. The final blend is 62% merlot, 27% cabernet sauvignon and 11% cabernet franc."
5 Stars & 96/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, February 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"This is comparable to a high-ranked Cru Classé Bordeaux, at a fraction of the price. The bouquet is classic and inviting with blackcurrant, dark cherry, tobacco, fennel, and fine oak with a floral overtone. It’s mouth-filling, succulent, and supple with a silky flow and persistence. Splendidly composed and styled, and finishes impressively long and robust."
95+/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, December 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Plum, dark berries, chocolate dipped strawberries, cedar, spice, dried flowers and tobacco. It’s medium-bodied, quite dense and firm, cool ‘mineral’ acidity, a graphite grip to tannin, a distinct savoury tobacco character, a little bit saline and iodine-laced too. There’s some bitter dark chocolate on a finish of excellent length. Here’s a pretty serious and structured Awatea, and it’s one of the best releases to date."
95/100 James Suckling (2024 Vintage)
"This wine shows such focus, with blackberry, black currant, walnut, graphite and some dark chocolate aromas. Medium- to full-bodied with layers of ripe, beautiful tannins and a long and caressing finish. It’s all here, and shows such an enticing texture. 62% merlot, 27% cabernet sauvignon and 11% cabernet franc. Hard not to drink now. Drink or hold."
