Community Tasting Notes 6

• benjaminpaul wrote: 91 points

  August 25, 2018 - Now this was better than the previous bottle.
  
  Nose of coffee bean, earth, dark powdery plum, dark fruits. Palate plenty of dark forest, chocolate, spice (nutmeg) and black currant. Dark, beautiful, long.

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• benjaminpaul wrote: 87 points

  November 18, 2017 - Pnp. Deep red/purple. Nose of franc mostly - blackberry, bramble fruit, liquorice, overripe plum, dark cherry. Palate similar yet faded - powdery, earthy, dirty but an elegance to it with a long, lingering, floral (lavender) secondary finish bringing in Christmas cake, roast meat and further ripe fruit expression. Tannic feel.
  
  Needs a decanter and I believe this needs more time. It could go either way, perhaps it needs more integration or the fruit and complexity just isn’t there...

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• HowardNZ Likes this wine:

  March 24, 2017 - Another bottle drunk. Similar impressions to previous bottles. Still only now beginning to move secondary. No hurry needed to consume this wine.

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• HowardNZ wrote:

  February 17, 2016 - Under cork. Drunk over three evenings. Deep purple red. Left Bank nose of blackberry, crème de cassis, graphite with a little Black Doris plum. A ripe, rich, fruit forward bouquet without green or secondary notes. Similar on palate. Good weight, reasonable concentration and still largely in it's fruity, primary phase. Flavours of blackcurrant, blackberry, gunmetal and a touch of chocolate. Fine grained tannins. I don't see the green minty element I previously have seen in this wine. It lacks the depth, nuance and detail of a top Bordeaux but it's a good cooler climate New World Bordeaux blend. I still don't see why this won't go 10 years, easily.

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• HowardNZ Likes this wine:

  December 25, 2014 - A Comparative Bordeaux blends tasting (France, NZ, US etc) with Peter: Again, a relatively primary colour. A bouquet of primary red and black fruit, savoury and spicy. Some aromas of dark chocolate, with a minty, herbal element. A creamy, rich palate, with notes of chocolate. Smaller scaled than the Sineanns, with that minty, herbal component. Peter said he thought the wine was underripe. The majority of tasters had the wine as NZ, but some had it as French. Compared with the Baby Poux, this wine was quite fruit forward, but with a lot of tannin. The Helmsman is from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawkes Bay. 2010 was a cooler vintage. A bit disappointing from this top label. Cabernet Sauvignon 45%, Merlot 44% and Cabernet Franc 11%.

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Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2010
• Type Red
• Producer Sacred Hill
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation Helmsman
• Vineyard n/a
• Country New Zealand
• Region North Island
• SubRegion Hawke's Bay
• Appellation Hawke's Bay
• UPC Code 9416623567003

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 1 (2%)
• In Cellars 21 (47%)
• Consumed 23 (51%)

Food Pairing

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