150 Church Road,
Taradale,
Hawke's Bay
New Zealand
Ph: +64 6 844 2053
Fax: +64 6 844 3378
info@churchroad.co.nz
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The Church Road Cuve Series range is an opportunity to present a range of interesting and individual wines outside our mainstream Church Road production. With these wines, our winemakers are extending the varietal and winemaking boundaries to deliver exciting wines with unique personality interest.
Crafted from ripe, low-yielding Malbec from our Phoenix Extension vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and using traditional Bordeaux winemaking techniques, this premium red wine marries ripe, concentrated dark fruit flavours supported by charry oak complexity.
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Release date: November 2005
Variety: Malbec 87% , Merlot 13%
Region: Hawke's Bay
A rich, ripe and expressive Malbec showing the very best characteristics of this traditional Bordeaux variety.
Colour: An inky, rich red of great intensity.
Aromas: On the nose, a complex array of violet, spice black fruits and tar aromas complemented by toasty French oak.
Palate: Rich, succulent fruit is supported a firm backbone of strong, ripe tannin.
This wine will reward careful cellaring for up to five years. Over time the primary berry fruit characters will become more integrated and more complex and earthy flavours and aromas will develop.
Though many varieties were frost affected this year, the later flowering Malbec came through unscathed. The harvest period was characterised by warm days and, particularly, warm nights. This lead to fruit with a good level of flavour ripeness and Malbec in particular performed very well.
Brix at harvest: 23.°
Winemakers: Tony Prichard, Chris Scott
This wine was made using traditional Bordeaux-based winemaking techniques. Grapes were crushed to fermenters and the wine gently circulated over the skins for a period of 21 days to extract colour, tannin and flavour. Following fermentation the wine was barrel aged in French oak barriques to add complexity and richness, and to soften the high concentration of tannins typical to this variety.
The wine remained in French oak barrels (52% new, 48% one-year-old) for approximately 14 months to extract oak flavour, stabilise colour and evolve the tannins.
Alcohol: 13.5% vol.
Total Acidity: 5.7 g/l
* currently available vintage(s)
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