Main Divide North Canterbury Merlot Cabernet 2020 $18-$21 A lipsmacking blend of classic varieties produces a plummy, cocoa and blueberry-laced wine that’s ripe, spicy and very easy to drink. It’s a smile-inducing, uncomplicated style that’ll work nicely with anything meaty. Just drink it, don’t overthink it. Main Divide
cabernet
Leveret Estate Reserve Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2020
Leveret Estate Reserve Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2020 $25.99 Paired with: The Ultimate Beef Burgers by Annabel Langbein in the NZ Herald Jan 28 2023 Eating burgers isn’t something you can do sexily. Unless you’re Anya Taylor-Joy of course. Her character Margot gets to masticate Chef Slowik’s meaty offering in that mind-bending movie The Menu. … Read More
A Little Maison Noire Magic – BayBuzz Magazine Christmas Issue 2022
Santé to Maison Noire by Yvonne LorkinNovember 29, 2022 Photo: Florence Charvin “My perfect Christmas present?” asks artist Esther Smith. “Easy. A trailer load of mulch.” Not exactly what I was expecting when asking Esther and her husband, winemaker Guillaume Thomas of Maison Noire wines, what their Christmas wishes were for 2022. But as I quickly … Read More
Pegasus Bay Waipara Valley Merlot Cabernet 2019
Pegasus Bay Waipara Valley Merlot Cabernet 2019 $34 Three years on from harvest and this soothing, saucy Bordeaux-style blend is soothing, lithe, cocoa and coffee-edged. A saucy blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec and cabernet franc, it was aged in French oak for 18 months (25% of the barrels were new) which encouraged the wine … Read More
Goldie Estate Waiheke Island Merlot Cabernet 2018
Goldie Estate Waiheke Island Merlot Cabernet 2018 $26 Super-bright and berry driven, this merlot cabernet blend is ferociously flavoursome on the fruit-front (that’s my alliteration quota filled for this note) and I’m a huge fan of its mid-palate textures. It’s like a gentle giant of a wine, plush and velvety, but big on personality. Nicely … Read More
Eaton Marlborough Merlot Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
Eaton Marlborough Merlot Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 $48 Cool-climate elegance all the way here with Mike Eaton’s new 85:10:5 blend sourced from tiny parcels of fruit gathered from secret-squirrel plots across the region. Seasoned leather, blueberry, graphite, blackcurrant, and pepper push their way across the palate. The tannins are fine-grained, deliciously dusty, and as per … Read More
Eaton Marlborough Merlot Malbec Cabernet 2014
Eaton Marlborough Merlot Malbec Cabernet 2014 $48 Straight out, I’ll say this 85/10/5 blend (created by Mike Eaton) may need decanting as it’s un-fined and unfiltered and natural sediment and tartrate crystals (or ‘wine diamonds’) may appear. This means all the natural anise, blueberry, pine needle, white pepper, sweet vanilla and smoke notes shine through. … Read More
Brookfields Reserve Vintage 2019 Cabernet Merlot 2015
Steak sandwiches – paired in dish Summer 2020 If you are paying strict attention to the condition of your steaks for these sandwiches, you’d want to have a darn lovely red wine to nuzzle alongside them, right? That’s where the Brookfields Reserve Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Merlot 2015 ($59) sneaks up and snares you from the … Read More
Leveret Estate Library Edition Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2009
Leveret Estate Library Edition Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2009 $28 It’s not every day that you get to taste newly-released library stock of a ten-year-old merlot cabernet blend, and I’ll tell you this for a dollar. It’s pretty much vanilla and prune-infused perfection in a glass. Softly-styled and oozing into the bricky-red colour spectrum, it’s … Read More
Obsidian Waiheke Island Vitreous 2015
Obsidian Waiheke Island Vitreous 2015 $31.50 A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, this is how classic Bordeaux-style reds are composed. Aromatically this wine is mindblowingly elegant and hearty at the same time. I love the lithe, slippery texture, peppery mid-palate and marathon-like length of flavour. Gorgeous.
12