Winemaker Notes
Try with red meat and game dishes.
Professional Ratings
-
Tasting Panel
Pioneers of red wine in New Zealand make this dense, lush-textured Bordeaux-style blend; deep and ripe with concentrated fruit and lovely balance.
-
Wine & Spirits
Bordeaux varieties thrive in this coastal gravel quarry, as they do in the deep river- stone promontories of the Médoc. This wine blends cabernet sauvignon (40 percent) with merlot and cabernet franc (plus one percent petit verdot). It has the supple power this sort of soil can bring to wine, the fruit glowing red while the tannins seem to glisten with details of pebbles of all colors. Cedar, cranberry and red-apple-skin flavors last, and will only gain detail as the wine ages.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blended of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2013 The Gimblett has a deep garnet-purple color and aromas of crushed blackberries, wild blueberries and blackcurrants with a cedar and mocha undercurrent. Medium-bodied with a great intensity of ripe black berry flavors and good amount of oak still apparent, it has a firm backbone of grainy tannins and lively acid, finishing long with some spices coming though. Rating: 91+
-
Wine Enthusiast
This blend of four Bordeaux varieties (40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot) is reasonably full in the mouth, with subdued aromas of blackberry and cola. Dark berry, earth and mocha flavors finish long and velvety. Drink now–2025.
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.