Commercial description

A Tantalus is a small wooden cabinet that contains two or three decanters of precious wine, for which there is a lock and key.  The Tantalus prevents unauthorised people from opening the cabinet and drinking its contents, while allowing the bottles? beauty to be on display. With a key to the Tantalus wines, one obtains access to the secrets of the treasures held within. All of the Tantalus reserve wines have names referring to the origins of Tantalus... An Ecluse allows boats to pass through bodies of water at differing levels. Unlock the Ecluse and let your glass take you on the most amazing journey.

Made up of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec, the Ecluse pours a deep garnet with a bright carmine ring. This Cabernet blend elegantly displays pure fruit notes of wild berries and black plum. A hint of pennyroyal underpinned by aromas of violets, cedar, sweet tobacco and saddle leather support the fine grain tannins, slowly unlocking the secrets within, this wine displays tremendous structure and sustained length.

A fantastic wine, that elevates slow roasted lamb shoulder with fresh mint topping, Flank steak and tamarind stir-fry, Porcini mushroom risotto, Old fashioned beef stew, Grilled rib steak on vine shoots barbecue

Winery's notes...

A stylish Hawke's Bay blend that has chartered our way, a wine with a strong character and a strong following. Blended from the best blocks from our estate, we use a variety of clones, each block fermented then matured in oak barrels as stand alone parcels. After 12 months initial maturation, each barrel was tasted and scored with only the best making the cut for The Navigator. Softly concentrated with deep and dense aromas of plush red fruits, cocoa, spice and cedar, the palate is medium-full bodied with rich and succulent flavours. 

The long finish and fine tannins make this an ideal accompaniment for your beef dishes, richly flavoured foods and cheeses. 

Merlot 34%, Cabernet Sauvignon 31%, Cabernet Franc 19%, Malbec 16%

Alpha Domus winery was founded in 1989 and its name is an anagram of the owners' names, Anthonius, Leonard, Paulus and Henrikus. Domus is Latin for home. 

They named this soft, chocolatey and plush Merlot after the classic 1932 Fox Moth aircraft, which helped open the world up to travel and adventure. This dry, smooth and full bodied red also opens up new worlds of flavour and shows why Merlot is the most planted red grape in Hawke's Bay - it works a treat there. 

Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon combine in this outstanding full bodied dry and powerful blend, which is made from hand picked grapes grown in the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District’s Cornerstone and Ngakirikiri vineyards. 

The grapes were fermented with wild yeasts, which provides diverse depth and flavours to the wine, which has flavour notes of black olives, dried herbs and black currant notes. The wine was aged in French oak for 20 months and bottled unfiltered, which accentuates its gritty, smooth, powerful cedar notes.

Here is a wine for the long term cellar... Or decant and enjoy now.

Approachably priced, medium bodied blend of Bordeaux grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which delivers a dry, fruit forward experience. Good value for money.

Te Mata Estate is the oldest winery building in New Zealand and one of the oldest wineries in Hawke's Bay. It's a family owned and run business with two long terms winemakers, Phil Brodie and Peter Cowley (now retired and a partner in the company's Bullnose Vineyard - home to Syrah).

Commercial description

Our Merlot Cabernet Franc comes from our Cornerstone vineyard growing in Hawke's Bays' famed Gimblett Gravels appellation. An area renowned for producing excellent hot climate reds. We think Cornerstone is the jewel in the appellation's crown but there again we are rather biased!

In our Iris blend, the Merlot sets up the palate with ripeness and structure while the Cabernet Franc brings its sweet dried basil notes to create our deliciously good medium-bodied red

Soft plush Merlot with the black olive flavours of Cabernet Sauvignon’s impressive structure both add great balance to this powerful wine from Clearview Estate in Hawke’s Bay. Flavours here are dark and brooding black olives, dried woody thyme with all its aromatic intensity, supported by the velvety smoothness of Malbec, which makes up a small portion of this wine. 

This is a wine that drinks well now and can age to evolve even more impressive flavours for up to 10 years. 

About Clearview Estate

Clearview Estate is one of oldest, most well established wineries in Hawke's Bay and is situated on the Te Awanga Coast, south of Napier. It's a great place to visit for tastings at the cellar door as well as lunch in the dappled shade of the established courtyard area. The winery was founded by Tim Turvey, winemaker and co-owner. The current winemaker is the multi talented Matt Kirby.

VINEYARDS Parcels of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were hand-picked from selected sites on the  gravel soils of the old Ngaruroro River, and old vine Merlot from the Bridge Pa region.  Bridge Pa Triangle soils feature fine silt loam over red metal gravels, while the gravel sites protected by Roys Hill, feature gravel over fine silt. These sites are free draining and low in fertility, resulting in struggling vines producing fruit of great concentration. Low yielding vines, open canopy management, managed irrigation and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand farmed were common to all sites. Bridge Pa Merlot delivers ripe, dark plums which compliments the spicy brighter fruits from the gravels. Cabernet thrives on gravel sites and contributes structure, acidity and fragrant berry fruit notes. 

WINEMAKING Batches of hand harvested fruit was chilled overnight before processing the following day. Chilled bunches were hand sorted and de-stemmed, and whole berries were transferred to open fermenters with some foot stomping. Whole bunches were also incorporated in some of the Merlot fermenters. The berries were cold soaked before fermentation, with pumping over twice per day then pressed to barriques at the  end of fermentation. The Merlot and Cabernet matured for 21 months in new and  seasoned French oak barriques. Blended in December 2019 and bottled in January  2020, the final blend is approximately 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. 

SENSORY An elegant Merlot Cabernet blend which exhibits lifted aromatics of fragrant  berry fruits, sweet French oak, and underlying lavender and thyme. Complex and  textural, seamless tannins harmoniously support red and black fruits, earthiness,  and spice. Tautly poised to develop beautifully with bottle age.

This is a great red from a small wine producer just outside the village of Clevedon, in the rolling green hills southeast of Auckland. It's an unlikely destination for a top red as there are few other vineyards in the area, which is warm with a maritime climate - the coast can be seen from the vineyard and is about a 10 minute drive away.  

The wines are made solely from estate grown grapes from the four acres on site, which include Merlot, Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. This bunch of classic Bordeaux red grapes inspired founder Judy Fowler to make wines modelled on the great reds of Pomerol and St Emilion in Bordeaux. The first wines were made in 1999 and continue to be produced on site by Judy, her partner Phil Nunweek and winemaker Evert Nijzink.  

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."

Maestro is made in the warmest vintages only in North Canterbury. It is a dense, dark, dry, full bodied blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon with a smidgeon of Malbec in for good measure.