Community Tasting Notes 2

• Callum's Corkers Likes this wine: 93 points

  May 17, 2021 - Bought Exel Wines, Perth UK £24.00
  
  Gimblett Gravels, Hawke's Bay fruit. Cab Sav/Merlot/Malbec.
  My glass: Riedel Pinot Noir glass
  Decanted 1 hr
  
  N....rich and intense black and red fruit, cassis-like intensity, a slight raw red meat, some dry dusty barrel; tar, baccy.
  
  C...dark red/black approaching inky, medium-body.
  
  T...lush ripe black/red fruit, some concentration and some length (could have been longer, I thought; it fades sooner than I expected), near-inky yet very quaffable, a lovely Hawke's Bay red blend, classy fruit-handling; tannins a little furry/grippy but not distracting, it's ripe but there's just a hint of sappy edge to it.
  
  Further time in the cellar will clearly be profitable, I'd say at least another 5 yrs. It is nothing near mature. Feels like it could later be a 94/100 wine.
  
  Would have marked it higher if the flavours had of being longer. Feels more a Foodie wine than anything else.
  Medium-dry rather than genuinely dry. Oddly, very little mineral profile for me, just a tad of wet river stone.
  
  VFM?.....feels worth it's price, easily, in fact pretty much a bargain; I'm hard-pressed to think of a claret of this class being available for less than £25.00.

  Comment

• Callum's Corkers Likes this wine: 92 points

  August 28, 2020 - Bought Exel Wines, Perth UK, approx £23.00 July 2020
  
  Feels like it will cellar into a 93-94/100 wine.
  
  No Cab' Franc at all in the 2016 blend. Blend is 3 grapes only: Cab' Sav', Merlot, Malbec, all from Gimblett Gravels triangle sites, Hawke's Bay, NZ.
  
  Rich red wine with furry tannins, long flavours of dark chocolate, a hint of coffee/mocha, dark black fruits rather than red, a tad smokey, ends almost Dry. Good length. Classy. Drinking very well now at 4 yrs old - as a Foodie style - but is nothing near mature. Maybe at 8 yrs it won't be screaming, "Food, please!."?
  
  VFM?....Feels £30+, cost approx £23. Good value. I wonder if a £23 claret would be this good? Doubt it.

  Comment

Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2016
• Type Red
• Producer Esk Valley
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation Winemakers Reserve
• Vineyard n/a
• Country New Zealand
• Region North Island
• SubRegion Hawke's Bay
• Appellation Gimblett Gravels
• UPC Code 9414416105142

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 17 (71%)
• Consumed 7 (29%)

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