Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well; sorry for the delay in posting an update. We finally got to have our 05 barrel blend wine tastings this last weekend with John and Jeremy (in the photo on the Right they are hard at work) et the "fine palate team of Matakana" They wish to remain unknown to protect their integrity but we did some serious tasting that eve!!! The left photo shows the "lab" with the wine prior to blending.

John offered up to us all 4 different bleds for us to sample and discuss. To refresh your memories, we have CAb Franc and Malbec that is from our own property as well as Merlot from Hawks Bay from 12 year old vines grown in a very famous area of NZ called the Gimblet Gravels. Our 05 two varities are turning out expecially well.

Here are the early opinions on each grape.

Malbec= Excellent dark color and moderate berryfruit aromas. The wine is rich and stewy, with attractive full-flavored fruit, good palate length, and a solid structure. This wine has excellent potential as a decent chunk of any blend

Cab Franc=Moderately colored with nice savoury aromas. Moderate palate weight, very attractive fruit sweetness, very savoury, firm acidity and nice silky tannins. The wine looks extremely attractive at this stage.

Merlot= Good color, lots of fruit, quite rustic, strongly flavored with good solid structure. Good as a stand alone or as a major part of a blend with the Malbec and Cab Franc.

Our Cabernet Franc and Malbec look look particularly exciting as this was a wonderful harvest with very good outcome 12 months later. Sooooooooo, what are our blends? Well, that is still a secret to all. We plan to share our preferred blends with Robert Lipman and has staff in two weeks back in Nashville and see what they like best for the Nashville area drinkers of premium wine. Once Lipman Brothers decides what wine the want us to bottle for them, we will then make up our wine to offer in NZ. The really really good news at this time is that whatever we finally bottle for our 05 release is going to be super wine--we can't go wrong as all the possible blends are really good!!!

So, next time I will let you know what we will be sellling for Christmas in Middle Tennessee this year under our premium Estate Label for Hawks Nest. I do know this, it will be dark red, it will be really good wine, it will be in short supply, and it will be worth the price to buy it.

Meanwhile you can still get some of our 04 Matdakana Red Hawks Nest wine in Nashville but it is going fast so you better snap it up before it is all gone!!!

More soon;

Dr. Jim still but just barely Downunder