Vieux Château des Combes is located in Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes, just five kilometres away from the historic village of Saint-Emilion. This is a deep, ruby red wine. Complex aromas of ripe berries and spice lead into a palate rich with flavours of dark red fruits and coffee.

From its deep colour to its savoury aromas and complex layers of flavour - liquorice, spice and black olives - Blacksmith Cabernet Sauvignon is a full bodied and smooth wine with a great fruit presence and a long, spicy finish.

Langmeil is owned by the Lindner family, which has been making wine for six generations in the Barossa Valley.

This Cabernet Malbec is made up of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. The varieties were hand-picked, de-stemmed and fermented separately in small open topped vats where they were gently hand plunged and pumped over to aid in extracting the maximum amount of flavour and colour from the berries. Following an extended maceration period the wine was transferred into French oak barrels where it spent 11 months.

This is a dark and brooding beast with fruits of the forest including Black Doris plum and spiced cherry. It is rich and powerful on the palate with a silky mouthfeel and well-pitched tannins. Attractively rounded with upfront fruit flavours this wine is very attractive now but will certainly reward with time in the cellar. Drink now through till 2030.

Complex Hawke's Bay blend modelled on the best of Bordeaux as a blend of Cabernets Sauvignon, Franc and with a dash of Merlot to add soft, smooth, sweet black plum textures and flavours. This wine has great structure and intensity of flavour. A silky attack with concentrated black currant and spicy plum flavours some liquorice and mineral elegance with a long flavored fine grained tannin finish. This wine will improve with cellaring. 

Yalumba is a family owned and fiercely independent wine producer with roots back to 1849. This is their take on the classic Australian blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

The Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from four vineyards in the Barossa Valley. The diversity of the vineyard selection provides the rich, lifted Cabernet Sauvignon aromatics and palate structure for which The Signature is renowned. The Shiraz comes from vineyards of varying age, with the oldest planted in 1925. These blocks are of sandy loam, featuring yellow sand and ochre clay over red clay. The combination of these Barossa Valley blocks provides a Shiraz with sweetness, fullness, depth and layers of complexity.

Matured for 19 months in 25% new French barriques and Hungarian hogsheads, balance in older French and Hungarian barriques and hogsheads.

Deep, dense purple-red in colour. Seductive and alluring florals, cool mints, red pomegranate with fine blackberry fruits and dark cherry aromas. The palate is delightfully generous with dark red cherry fruit that merges into ironstone tannins. A medium to full bodied wine with a long, flowing tannin profile. A very refined and elegantly styled Signature

Classical Hawke's Bay take on Bordeaux using 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 21% Merlot, 7% Melbec

A complex aroma of berry fruits, spice, cassis, cedar and cigarbox notes, complemented by fine oak.

Sweet rounded berry-fruit flavours of blackberry and wild brambles, mocha, spice, savoury olive notes and fine oak tannin. This wine shows a complex bouquet, silken texture and firm structure. 

Dark, ripe and concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon from the Barossa Valley, which is full flavoured wine made with black olive and dried herb complexity which will reward cellaring for up to a decade, longer in good cellaring conditions. 

A superlative wine to keep or decant and serve at room temperature in your best large red wine glasses now. 

Rockford Wines' legacy

Rockford Wines is an icon itself and a relatively new one, established in 1971 by Robert O'Callaghan, who has forged a reputation for preserving winemaking tradition and saving many of the world's oldest grape vines from being pulled up in the Australian Government's vine pull schemes of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Rockford vintage shed houses equipment from 50 to 100 years ago, which was discarded by other wineries as modernisation took over.

Te Mata Awatea is often described as a baby Coleraine and is one of Hawke's Bay's most iconic red wines. First made in 1982 as a classic blend of Bordeaux red grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Proportions vary each year and the wine was declassified in 2012 due to a cool vintage and the need to separate the two wines, Coleraine and Awatea. Both are excellent and both deliver robust classic reds for drinking now or cellaring for the long term. Awatea delivers excellent value for money for its consistently outstanding quality, great balance of dry spicy flavours and dark fruit forward approachability. 

Te Mata Estate is Hawke's Bay's oldest winery building and one of its oldest wineries; a family owned company with an eye on producing great New Zealand wines modelled on and inspired by the world's classic great wines.

This is a very deeply coloured and flavoursome wine as you would expect from a Malbec based wine. It displays rich plummy, jammy Gimblett Gravels fruit notes on the nose with complementary notes of tobacco and dried herbs. On the palate it is a medley of compex fruit flavours supported by a generous mouthfeel and age worthy tannins. A full bodied and complex wine, and an ideal accompaniment to red meat dishes.

The Shotfire Quartage is sourced from the older Thorn-Clarke owned plantings in the Barossa, with 'Kabininge' and 'St Kitts' vineyards being the main contributors.

 This wine is primarily a blend of traditional Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec) with Cabernet Sauvignon always being dominant. Whilst the Barossa is famous for Shiraz, Thorn-Clarke is renowned for its Quartage which has collected Trophies for best wine of show and / or class at most major wine shows in Australia over the last 10 years.

Winemaker's note:

"2015 was an exceptional vintage and the weather was consistent which allowed us to grow and ripen grapes to optimum quality. This blend is made of 72% Merlot, 20% Malbec and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon from grapes hand-picked off our Gimblett Vineyard (58%) and Triangle Vineyard (42%). 

After fermentation the wine was aged for 24 months in French oak (42% new), then blended and had a further 3 months on lees in tank. There was no racking which allow the wine to have great volume and weight.

This is a concentrated, medium to full bodied blend. With ripe blackberry and plum characters, fine grained tannins and a fresh acidity all giving the wine a wonderful balance. It will age well and improve for 10 years from vintage."

The long awaited vintage 2022 Coleraine harnesses the energy and complexity of Te Mata Cabernet Sauvignon, on show at its highest level since the first Coleraine in 1982.

Beautiful floral aromas of lavender, violet, plum and blackcurrant, are all in orbit around the wine’s dark savoury core of tightly wound graphite, nori, coffee grounds, vanilla and tobacco.  The palate is intensely concentrated, with a superbright tension building freshness and precision as layer upon layer of fine polished tannins give pinpoint detail alongside signature, exacting, levels of finesse.

Coleraine '22 is a modern reprise of what makes Coleraine iconic, a wine balancing past and future, heritage and innovation. This is a statement wine, one that lingers both on the palate and in the mind.

 

From the winery...

Our 2021 Miss Bronte Eden Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is created to be an easily approachable yet variety-defining style, for lovers of cabernet.

Upon release, thanks to favourable seasonal conditions, our Cabernet shows off all the beautiful leafy aromas that we found in the vineyard during ripening, along with gentle mint and sage notes.

Unmistakable ripe blackberry, rich black currant and cassis flavours dance across the palate, with herbal lacework woven in.

Spectacular open-grained tannin, as expected, is defined by chocolate and soft cocoa to balance the flawless finish.

Vintage: 2021

Region: Eden Valley

Winemaker: Jo Irvine

Alcohol/Vol: 14.5%

Ideal serving: at around 17 – 19ºc

Vineyard Sites - Cornerstone Vineyard lies at the heart of the renowned Gimblett Gravels viticultural region, strategically positioned at the junction of Gimblett Road and State Highway 50 in Hawke’s Bay. This area is celebrated as New Zealand’s premier Bordeaux red grape-growing region, and it’s easy to see why. The vineyard’s unique terroir, composed of riverbed stones and gravels, challenges the vines, leading them to produce a limited yield of small, intensely coloured, and flavourful berries. The resulting grapes give rise to wines with rich, mouth-filling tannins and a depth of character that speaks to the harsh yet rewarding growing conditions. 

Vinification - The grapes were carefully handpicked, then crushed and fermented in small 3-tonne open fermenters. Each batch was hand-plunged and allowed varying periods of post-ferment skin contact to enhance complexity and structure. After pressing off, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation and was aged in a mix of French (90%) and American (10%) oak barriques, adding subtle layers of flavour and depth. 

Tasting Notes - Enticing aromas of freshly sanded wood, new leather, anise, and spice draw you in. On the palate, sweet dark red fruits, plums, and berry pie flavours shine through. Grippy, robust, dry tannins balance a smooth, sweet, slightly charry oak profile. This wine is drinking well now but will develop even more complexity with ageing.