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

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Something a little unusual from Marlborough. Originally from North-eastern Italy, this tiny parcel was sourced from the Stanley Estate plantings in the Awatere Valley. It shows dark fruit characters, a little Awatere spice and a fresh, lively acidity. It's a slightly more robust red than our usual Pinot Noir and a great match with a big steak over the open grill this winter.

Harvested, crushed and then fermented in small batches in oak cuves to add complexity. The ferments are hand plunged, skin contacted post-fermentation, gently pressed and then aged in a 20/80 blend of new/old French oak barriques for ten months prior to blending and bottling in late summer.