Winemaker Notes
A vibrant ruby color leads to an aroma of fresh red fruits with cassis and violets on the nose. These combine with tobacco notes plus other secondary perfume from barrel ageing. A smooth, textural mouthfeel with intensity and length. Delicious as a young wine but with some structure to age.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has attractive, spiced red and dark berries and hints of pepper, chocolate and forest wood. The palate is mid weight and casts fresh raspberry flavors in a smooth, elegant mode. The fine tannins hold well.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga Cabernet Franc is pleasing and decisive in its varietal integrity. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits classic aromas and flavors of savory spice, tart red fruit, and mineral notes. Serve it with a well-spiced lamb stew with al dente vegetables. (Tasted: March 8, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.