Testify is the top red wine from Decibel and this one is a dark, juicy and spicy red made from a blend of Malbec and Merlot. This powerhouse wine spent 20 months in new oak, which flatters its ripe fruit flavours from 2019, a warm dry and sunny years when grapes got super ripe and juicy. This wine is a serious contender for ageing but it is also an impressive full bodied, dry red wine right now. Oak sits nicely in this wine, without intruding on the ripe fruit flavours. 

Precious little of this lovely Gamay was made from a vineyard of just 1386 vines of Gamay in Northburn, Central Otago. This equates to 0.33 hectare. What this wine lacks in volume, it more than makes up for in high quality.
It?s a wonder that Gamay is only just beginning to be recognised as the plush little sister to Pinot Noir and here is another small volume, top notch example from Central Otago, which proves the point with its lush mouth feel and lively fresh dark fruit flavours.  

An exceptional dry, full bodied, smooth and complex red from a great vintage, 2020, in Hawke's Bay. This blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and  Cabernet Franc is made from hand picked grapes and it massively over delivers on taste, complexity and its incredible depth of flavour from spending 18 months ageing in French oak. The flavours are outrageously good in this lovely red. 

Winemakers Rod and Emma Easthope make one of New Zealand's few Gamays from the Two Terraces Vineyards in Maraekakaho, Hawke's Bay. It's a vineyard owned by Ian Quinn, a fellow lover of the velvet smooth reds that the Gamay grape is capable of making. 

This lovely wine is made from hand picked grapes, which were whole bunch fermented, foot stomped and aged in a combination of old oak puncheons and stone eggs.

Bottled unfined, unfiltered and unsulphured.

Vineyards
- The McKenzie vineyard is located in Waipara close to the winery. The vineyard is a free draining terrace site. The average age of vines varies from 16 years or older.

Wine Making
- All hand harvested in late April and early May
- Harvest brix ranged from 22-23 brix [% sugar]
- Fermentation was in small vessels [1500L] 3 day cool soak, inoculated with yeast,
fermentation varies from 4-6 days peaking at 32 C then allowed 7-10 days on skins. Some components were given extended skin contact up to 28 days.
- Pressing was in traditional Basket Press
- Cooperage was a mixture of French barrels ranging in age from new to 6+ years. Duration is approx 18 months
- Malo lactic [ML] fermentation is natural starting in Spring and the wine is racked and has a SO2 addition once ML complete.
- Bottling is through 1 micron filter

Bottle Details
- Alcohol 13.0 % by volume
- Acid is 5.5 gm/L [as tartaric]
- Volatile Acidity is 0.45 gm/L
- Residual Sugar is < 1 gm/L

This is a reimagination of the classic wine of Spain. Aged like a Rioja, it is a deep and layered wine filled with dark berry fruit and smoky flavours. If you usually reach for a Syrah, you?ll find a new love in this Esk Valley take on Tempranillo.

Tannat originates from the Madiran region of south-west France ? the variety the so-called ?French Paradox? is based on. Tannat is known for its huge colour and tannin concentration ? in the Madiran region, this grape has the nickname of ?la folle noir? ? literally ?the crazy black grape?. It has a unique aroma and flavour profile ? vibrant fruit alongside ?earthy? notes.

The colour of the wine is a rich and vibrant hue of real intensity. The nose has a totally unique fruit profile of blackberry/blueberry notes and an underlying earthiness with hints of fountain-pen ink and a seam of French oak. At present, the wine displays a youthful vibrancy ? our experience is that with bottle age, the primary fruit gives way to earthiness and increased complexity.

There is a burst of black cherry fruit with a fresh lively mid-palate. The winemaking was directed towards softening the tannins to create mid-palate ?flesh? ? tannins support rather than dominate the palate here. Acid has been managed to enhance the wines vibrancy and fruit.

This huge wine will work well with a wide range of red meat dishes. We expect it to last a very long time ? 10+ years.

Approximately 30% new French oak, un-fined and unfiltered. Estate bottled, hand-labelled and individually hand-numbered

Stonecroft has the oldest Zinfandel vines in New Zealand which originally came from California and now make this deliciously robust, smooth, plummy tasting red in Hawke's Bay. It's a big red but drinks well now thanks to ripe grapes and the accessible flavours of the Zinfandel grape variety. 

All grapes in this wine were hand picked grapes, fermented in stainless steel with hand plunged twice daily to extract tannins and weight gently. The finished wine was matured for 17 months in American oak, 30% new. Only 100 cases were made.

* Zinfandel is popular in California and also grown in Puglia, southern Italy, where it is known as Primitivo, due to being one of the first grapes to ripen each year, hence the name 'Primi'. It originally comes from Croatia where it is known as Crljenak.

Ian and Linda Quinn are among the few growers of the Gamay grape in New Zealand at their Two Terraces Vineyard in Mangatahi, Hawke's Bay. This lovely wine made by Haydon Penny is the made from their vines and in relatively small volumes.

It's extremely aromatic with red fruit flavours and offers a beautiful mix of bright red fruit and earthy notes. Light and lively on the palate, with a crunchy texture and loads of cherry and strawberry, with just a hint of spice. Move over rose?? Gamay is here! Serve slightly chilled.

Fruity, smooth, velvety and juicy. This seductive red charmer comes from Central Otago but is made with the great Gamay grape, famous for its starring role in Beaujolais. And, like good Beaujolais, this wine's soft tannins and smooth texture mean it can be enjoyed lightly chilled. 

Vibrant, juicy and fruity. This is a great summer red to serve slightly chilled or a year round smooth and versatile red.

Soft spicy and flavoursome red made from Gamay (the Beaujolais grape), only in this case grown on the Two Terraces Vineyard at Maraekakaho in Hawke's Bay. Lifted fruity aromas accentuate the soft, intense perfume of the Gamay grape, which expresses itself with full force in this fragrant lovely red fruited wine. 

The wine was fermented with indigenous yeasts and given 100% carbonic maceration and aged in a combination of large clay amphora from Spain and older oak barrels. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.