Winemaker Notes
The wine’s rich and vibrant palate is perfectly balanced, with a modern and varietally expressive taste, including cassis, raspberry, mocha, spice, and a distinctive minerality. The fruit ripeness is so succulent that it cloaks the profound, chiseled tannins that carry the palate on endlessly. With perfume, power, finesse, and length, this wine is a unique creation.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Coleraine is the third in a trio of great vintages and comprises a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc. The bouquet is all bramble and spice, with fresh grated nutmeg, a hint of star anise, raw cocoa, raspberry seed, cassis, new leather and iodine. There is also a crushed oyster shell aspect here that I find most appealing. On the palate, the tannins make their presence felt in a register of tactile chewiness and encourage movement and thought. Ultimately, while I find this vintage to be stylistically aligned with 2020, it is very different in its final impact. It feels to me as if 2021 harnesses the structure and intrigue of 2019 with the creamy lushness of 2020 and puts them together in a burst of balance. This wine is like a star coming into existence—there's a bang, a burst of light and a settling period—and it's astoundingly good.
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Vinous
The 2021 Coleraine has another very intense nose not dissimilar to the 2019: layers of blackcurrant, cedar and violet, though not the same level of mineralité as the 2020. Then again, the aromatics improve in the glass and reveal very appealing graphite/pencil shavings scents that lend it a Left Bank allure. The palate is medium-bodied with a keen line of acidity. Fresh and vibrant, this is endowed with plenty of graphite infused black fruit with impressive precision on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Distinctly peppery and herbal, offering notes of tobacco, cigar box and rosemary, with dense flavors of blackberry, plum, blueberry, espresso, black licorice and star anise. Tannins firm up on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now. 6,000 cases made, 300 cases imported.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
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.