Awatea Merlot/Cabernet 2024

Te Mata Estate, produktside (hentet 19. okt. 2026): 2024 Te Mata Awatea Merlot/Cabernet – område: Hawke's Bay; druer: Merlot 62%, Cabernet Sauvignon 27%, Cabernet Franc 11%; alkohol 13.5%; 17 måneder på fad, 28% nye franske fade. Producentens noter (engelsk): The grapes for Awatea Merlot/Cabernet '24 were hand harvested from Te Mata Estate’s Hawke’s Bay vineyards between 21 March and 9 April 2024. The separate parcels of grapes were destemmed before a traditional warm-plunged fermentation and extended maceration on skins. The resulting wines were then run to new and seasoned French oak barrels for 17 months, with 28% being new oak. Throughout this time, they were regularly topped and racked. The separate wines were blended in November 2024, then returned to barrel for their second winter. The finished wine was then fined and bottled in November 2025. The final blend is 62% merlot, 27% cabernet sauvignon and 11% cabernet franc. Awatea takes its name from the historic ship SS Awatea (a Maori word meaning 'Eye of the Dawn') that sailed the Auckland – Sydney – Wellington route in the late 1930s. The Awatea was requisitioned as a troop transport in WWII and was sunk off Algeria in 1942.