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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©2006
Crafted from select low-yielding vineyard sites in Hawke's Bay, Church Road Reserve Merlot Cabernet marries ripe, concentrated fruit with spicy oak complexities to create a complex Bordeaux-style wine with exquisite palate structure.
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Released: July 2005
Variety: 73% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec
Region: 100% Hawke's Bay
A wine of power and elegance, this is an earthy, rich Bordeaux-style wine built around a core of ripe Hawke's Bay fruit.
Colour: Rich and vibrant red.
Aromas: Dark berry fruit and plum characters are complemented by spicy French oak and the development of liquorice and cigar-box complexities.
Palate: Ripe fruit and a backbone of fine-grained tannins are balanced by soft acidity and an attractive, fleshy mid-palate. The finish is long and persistent.
This wine will reward careful cellaring for up to ten years or more. Over this time the primary berry fruit characters will diminish and be replaced by more complex, earth and leather flavours and aromas. The colour will also evolve, and the tannin will soften further.
2002 was a very good vintage for red wines in Hawke's Bay. With heat levels well above the 30-year average and low rainfall, we achieved very ripe sugars with low acidity and excellent concentration of flavour, colour and tannin.
Brix at harvest: 22.5-24.0°
Winemaker: Tony Prichard, Chris Scott
This wine was made using traditional Bordeaux-based winemaking techniques. After the grapes are crushed, we employ regular pumpovers, aeration and long macerations to develop flavour complexity, stabilise colour and to meld the tannins into the wine. We taste daily to monitor progress, and to determine the optimum time to drain the wine off skins.
The wine remained in French oak barrels (60% new and the balance one and two years old) for approximately 16 months to extract oak flavour, stabilise colour and evolve the tannins. Barrels were racked and returned every three months to enhance evolution of the wine.
The key to this wine is selecting very ripe fruit from low-yielding vineyard sites to produce rich flavours with strong concentration and structure. Traditional Bordeaux winemaking techniques then direct the style toward a complex wine that will continue to develop slowly and gracefully in the bottle over time.
Alcohol: 13.5% by volume
Total acidity: 5.8 g/L as tartaric
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002*, 2003, 2004
* currently available vintage(s)
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