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.  

Rich ripe boysenberry, cherry stone, tar, and spice aromas saturate the nose. The palate is awash with ripe red fruits and punchy velvety tannins. This Montepulciano is not for the faint hearted but will excite anyone that’s into big reds. This wine has a long life ahead of it and will certainly be worth cellaring into the coming decades.

Using the best black currant and blueberries with a little apple to give our Berry Bomb the right amount of zest to ensure the taste explodes.Low in saturated fat, cholesterol & calories. - 5% ABV

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

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. 

2024 Impression White

PURE, FRESH & TEXTURAL BARREL AGED CHARDONNAY

Bright, light yellow/green, it is mouthfilling and vibrant with hints of stonefruit and citrus. Creamy and textural with a refreshing dry mineral finish. Approachable and delicious.

Vintage
2024 was a classic Hawke’s Bay Vintage ideal for Chardonnay.  Warm days, cool nights, resulting in wines with naturally high acidity and intense citrus and stonefruit notes. Exceptionally low yields means exceptional quality and beautiful age worthy wines.

Vineyards
Kokako, Ohiti Valley and Ascot, Havelock North

Winemaking
90% Kokako Vineyard, Ohiti Valley 10%  Ascot Vineyard, Havelock North.  No SO2. Pressed to tank for cold settling overnight. Racked clean to barrel. Natural fermentation and malo-lactic fermentation to completion. Aged in matured French oak barrels on lees for 9 months.  Final Blend, barrel selection to taste.

pH 3.56 TA 7.0 g/L Alc 13.0 %v/v

Reviews
Sam Kim – Wine Orbit – 95/100

Complex and stylish, the wine shows mango, lemon peel, vanilla and cedar characters on the nose with a hint of sweet pastry. The palate is equally impressive with excellent concentration, splendidly complemented by creamy texture and beautifully infused acidity. Refined and sophisticated with richness as well as poise, finishing persistent and expansive. At its best: now to 2029.”

Lorenzo the Magnificent is made from the incredible 2024 Hawke’s bay grape harvest. The wine takes inspiration from Italian adventures and stories of the Renaissance patron of the arts, Lorenzo de Medici. A blend bringing together the noble grape varieties of Bordeaux and Tuscany – 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Sangiovese.

In Ollie’s experience, he has never come across such a spellbinding wine. The blend speaks of the earth, with captivating aromas of the purest of dark fruits encased in bramble and wood smoke and a fine seam of graphite. Texturally the wine is rich and structured with plush tannins derived from perfectly ripe red grapes. 

The grapes are harvested meticulously by hand, then destemmed before being fermented and aged in Italian ceramic and clay vessels. The use of Clay Amphorae, handmade in Hungary, allows for longer skin contact with the wine after fermentation which helps to build rich, velvety tannins and texture. Ollie also had a chance introduction to a local potter John Gisborne who had made a beautiful 120 litre clay egg that came very close to floating away during the huge flood of 2023. It survived and became the perfect vessel to age the pressed Sangiovese wine. Gravity is used for wine movements within the cellar and natural settling without filtration. May contain traces of romance.

Each bottle has a unique wax seal to ensure authenticity and presented in a premium gift box.

 225 bottles produced. 

Commercial description

The ancient, dark-skinned grape variety from Georgia delivers wines that command attention and, at our tiny yield level, devotion. At such concentration, Saperavi with its natural high level of fruit sugar, tannin and acidity turns in a seductive powerhouse like no other wine. Complex, multi-dimensional, structured, and elegant - a wine to truly cherish.

This wine will bring the most critical wine lover to wine heaven. The gorgeous intense, inky colour metamorphoses into a savoury lusciousness. One of the tasting team called it a sexy Georgian in a glass. Deep, rich and packed with black fruit almost jumping out of the glass. Maturing in new barrels refined the powerful tannins to a classy elegance. Rich and complex, multi-layered with an staggering backbone of fruit, acidity and tannin, each sip giving you more and more pleasure. A dazzling wine experience for a wine to cherish. Tasted July 2022.

Inspired by Beaujolais, made in Hawke's Bay and all about expressing Gamay's soft red berry flavours with lifted floral aromas and a smooth, medium body. Carbonic maceration was used for 47% of the wine and it enhances the fruit and floral aromas. The remaining 53% received a traditional, warm, red wine fermentation. The resulting wines completed their malolactic fermentation and were matured for seven weeks in seasoned French oak barrels, before blending and bottling.

Vineyards

In 1995, Te Mata Estate introduced to New Zealand a superior selection of Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc, the grape variety of the best wines of France’s Beaujolais region. Estate Vineyards Gamay Noir 2020 is a single vineyard wine from Te Mata Estate’s Woodthorpe Terraces vineyard, harvested on 3 and 12 March 2020.

Woodthorpe vineyard is located on elevated, north facing terraces in Hawke’s Bay Tutaekuri River valley. Between 1863 and 1914 it was home to the annual Woodthorpe races. 

This deliciously innovative red wine works well when lightly chilled. It is made in the style of a chillable reds by Jenny Dobson, who says it's her experimental new take on Merlot, made to taste plummy and juicy with earthy notes and a freshness that makes it taste ideal when served lightly chilled. Pronounced dark fruity aromas leap out of this wine, which was given approximately 10% carbonic intracellular fermentation, which lifts its perfumed flavours. A lovely take on Merlot…
The Hawke’s Bay winemaker also produces an outstanding 100% dry Merlot made in a deeper, richer style, which is impressive now and also a keeper for cellaring.

WINEMAKING NOTES

The grapes for this wine were sourced from the lower terrace of the Askerne vineyard, across different soil profiles from sandy silt through to gravels, giving wonderful complexity to the individual parcels that make up the blend. Each batch was fermented as individual varieties followed by extended post maceration on skins to build richness. After pressing, the wines were settled and racked to oak barriques. Here they completed malolactic fermentation and were matured for 12 months before blending. The final blend was made up of 76% Carménère, 12% Syrah, 11% Mourvèdre and 1% Malbec and with a 40% new oak component, and 40% second fill.

ANALYSIS

pH 3.87 TA 5.7g/L Alc 13.0% TASTING NOTE An intriguing blend with heady aromas of sweet vanillan spice, blackberries, subtle notes of tobacco, cardamom and black pepper. The palate is rich and flavoursome, with layers of dark berry fruits, and velvety vanillan tones. Fine tannins provide elegant structure, and its juicy concentration gives it a deliciously long finish.