2014 Hans Herzog / Hans Family Estate Secret of Marlborough

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 92 points

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  7/14/2022 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  A naturalist Kiwi wine made by a Swiss winemaker from an Italian grape variety? Righty. So, this is a red wine made with organically farmed Montepulciano from a vineyard planted in 1996, fermented spontaneously followed by extended post-fermentation maceration. Aged for 24 months in French oak barriques (approx. 20% new). Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a minimal dose of SO2. 14% alcohol and 6,0 g/l acidity. Tasted blind.
  
  Youthful, vibrant and almost fully opaque blackish-red color. The nose feels surprisingly herbaceous and fresh with crunchy aromas of dark forest fruits and freshly picked black cherries, some blueberry tones, a little bit of leafy greenness, light chokeberry tones, a hint of savory wood spice, a touch of redcurrant and a toasty whiff of coffee. The wine is dry, clean and crunchy on the palate with a medium body and bright flavors of tart lingonberries and cranberries, some sour cherry bitterness, a little bit of fresh red plum, light woody notes of savory oak spice, a toasty hint of mocha oak and a herbaceous touch of sappy green character. The structure relies mostly on the wonderfully high acidity, as the gentle medium-minus tannins mainly contribute to the silky structure. The finish is long, crunchy and lively with a bright, dry aftertaste of crunchy cranberries and tart lingonberries, woody notes of savory old oak, a little bit of sour cherry bitterness, light herbaceous notes of leafy greenness, a hint of ripe redcurrant and a ferrous touch of blood.
  
  A surprisingly serious effort, both for a Montepulciano and for a natural wine from New Zealand. Most of the Italian Montepulciano wines I've tasted have been just very simple and straightforward little wines and a great majority of "serious" Montepulciano wines end up being just parodies of so-called "serious wines" with their often too heavily extracted overall character and heavily oaked taste. However, this wine manages to avoid all those pitfalls, coming across as surprisingly fresh and zippy, yet packing enough density and concentration (without resorting to excessive oak) so that the wine appears very focused and well-composed - not just a light and simple bistro wine. What fooled all of us was the slightly herbaceous overall character, which made virtually all of us think of Cabernet Franc and it really took us some time to get our guesses out of the Loire Valley! However, none of us managed to guess either New Zealand or Montepulciano. A terrific wine; maybe not yet at the level of Valentini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - arguably the best Montepulciano in the world - but at 43,99€, this was not priced as such. I think the wine is still a bit overpriced, but not prohibitively so. All in all, I was very positively surprised by this wine and I can imagine it will keep improving even further from here, seeing how youthful it still was! Fine stuff, highly recommended.

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