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Right around the time that Frank Potts was planting his nascent Bleasdale Vineyards during the 1850s, an eccentric Prussian named Herman Daenke established a homestead along the banks of Bremer River, which he called Metala. The site was planted to viticulture by Arthur Formby in 1891 and became one of Langhorne Creek's most productive vineyards, it continues to supply fruit for a number of prestigious national brands. Legendary winemaker Brian Dolan took the radical step of bottling Metala under its own label in 1959 and won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962. Two generations later, the brothers Tom and Guy Adams took a similar leap of faith and.. The goodly farms of brothers in arms»
One of our nation's enduring winemaking dynasties, the Hamiltons planted vines just outside Adelaide in 1837. Great grandson Sydney Hamilton was a legendary and innovative viticulturalist, he ultimately made his own oenological conversion to the sacred Terra Rosa soils of Coonawarra in 1974, establishing one of Australia's most distinguished vineyards on a highly auspicious site, naming the property after forebear Lord Leconfield. An exceptional value for Cabernet of its class, presaged by a vigorously perfumed berry punnet nose, syrup textured, stately and refined, Leconfield makes a compelling.. What the doctor recommends in good red wine»
Established 1851 by the French Marist order, Mission Estate are New Zealand's oldest winery, under continuous management ever since. The city of Lyon's Society of Mary sailed to New Zealand with little more than faith, fair winds and a few healthy vines. Men of Burgundy, they knew from good wine, they chose their ground and planted rootstock near Ngaruroro River between Napier and Hastings at Pakowhai. Agriculture and livestock were a necessity, but the establishment of a productive vineyard was essential. The area is now known as Hawke's Bay, internationally renowned for the rich terroirs of Gimblett Gravels, home of New Zealand's most salient brands... The burgundy tradition of te ika a maui»
W. J. Seabrook & Son have been a part of the Australian wine industry since 1878. Many an ancient storefront, right across the country, are still emblazoned with the family label. Fifth generation vigneron Hamish Seabrook drew inspiration from time well spent at other illustrious estates, establishing his own personal repute as a distinguished winemaker during tours of duty at Bests Great Western, Brown Brothers Milawa and the Barossa's exalted Dorrien. A key to the long lived excellence of the Seabrook trademark has been a canny selection of exceptional vineyards fruit. Hamish hand chooses his harvests from the finest vineyards in the land, just as his.. Salutations to seabrook»

Villa Maria Private Bin Merlot CONFIRM VINTAGE

Merlot Hawkes Bay New Zealand
From fruit grown to closely husbanded vines on the Villa Maria estate property, at the outskirts of the eminent Gimblett Gravels precinct in Hawkes Bay. The vineyard has been managed to holistic principles of viticulture for many years, the quality of wine speaks for itself. Rather than relying on herbicides or pesticides, the focus is on enhancing soil health and yielding harvests of clean, natural grapes. Yields are kept limited to realize a quality of fruit that's concentrated and bursting with ripe natural sugars.
A minimalistic approach is employed throughout the winemaking process to complement what has been painstakingly achieved in the vineyard. Merlot grapes are destemmed and crushed into fermentation vessels. Fruit is pumped over and plunged several times daily for optimal extraction rich of colour, flavour and and just the right amount of gentle, soft tannins. Following the press and completion of malolactic, a component is transferred to a selection of seasoned French and American oak barriques for a year's maturation. Free range organic egg whites are employed to naturally soften the wine's tannins prior to filtration into bottle.
Deep crimson hues. The nose offers lifted ripe fruit aromas of blood plums and bramble along with dark chocolate oak. Vibrant red plum and berry fruits over subtle spice and cedar undertones. An abundance of dark fruit are paired with fine grained tannins to give a generous and rounded mouthfeel of great intensity and persistence. The full, textured palate and soft tannins make Villa Maria an excellent food wine.
Villa Maria
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Villa Maria
Its relative youthfulness not withstanding, the New Zealand based Villa Maria Group is establishing a reputation as one of the great wine companies of the world

Founded in 1961 and still operated by George Fistonich, Villa Maria has been New Zealand's leading wine award winner, both nationally and internationally since the early 1980's. Villa Maria's talented people have an unrelenting passion to produce quality wines.

Villa Maria

Realising that it takes more than just good winemaking to produce quality, a passion to succeed begins in the vineyard. Astute site selection by Villa Maria's vineyard experts, is followed by superior vineyard management and then complemented by expert winemaking. A strong focus on continually improving the vineyards is considered by Villa Maria to be an incredibly important factor in quality winemaking.

Vineyards have the highest of priority for Villa Maria whose team really does live and breathe the philosophy that it all starts in the vineyard. The grapes produced must be superb quality, as this is the essence of good winemaking. Villa Maria owns vineyards and sources grapes from contract growers from some of the best sites in three of New Zealand's leading grape growing regions; Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.

Villa Maria Estate has two state-of-art wineries in New Zealand. The largest is the new Auckland Winery and Vineyard Park. The Marlborough winery is based in one of New Zealand's premium grape-growing regions. The winery now crushes Villa Maria's Marlborough harvest from its vineyards and contract growers throughout the region. A new winery in Auckland was essential for Villa Maria to meet the increased domestic and export demand for wines and it has been designed to allow for long-term growth. Villa Maria also has 20 hectares of vines at the Auckland Winery site.

Villa Maria

As well as managing the company and publicly owned vineyard sites, Villa Maria's winemaking team work closely with contract growers. Villa Maria has a team of 80 dedicated contract growers in Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough who grow grapes under the close guidance of the company’s vineyard experts. Villa Maria's viticulturists, based in all three regions, have one focus - to consistently deliver quality fruit that is physiologically ready, to the winemakers.

Villa Maria was named as one of the world's 50 great wine producers by Wine Spectator. Named New Zealand Wine Company of the Year at Australia's Winestate Wine Awards for the sixth time in seven years. New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year and Best Sauvignon Blanc Trophy - 2004 International Wine and Spirit Competitions in the United Kingdom. Trophy for the Most Successful Exhibitor at the 2004 New Zealand Wine Society Royal Easter Show for the third time in four years and winemaker Alastair Maling MW, collecting the Gold Medal for Champion Winemaker of the Show. This is the third time in four years Villa Maria winemakers have won the award. George Fistonich was also short listed as one of 50 prominent figures in the wine industry by UK Wine International Magazine, named New Zealander of the year by the prestigious National Business Review, and in the top ten New Zealanders by daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald.

Villa Maria pioneered the development of specialist publicly owned vineyard companies in New Zealand with the setting up of Seddon and Terra Vitae Vineyards. Both companies own vineyards, which Villa Maria is contracted both to manage and source grapes from. Seddon was the first ever public vineyard company in New Zealand. Terra Vitae owns vineyards in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough. Many of the estate's Hawkes Bay red grape varietals are planted in company owned and managed vineyards in the area known as Gimblett Gravels. Now regarded as an appellation in its own right, Gimblett Gravels represents 34 wineries and winegrowers, including Villa Maria Estate. The area, which takes in the Gimblett Road, is defined both by location and by soil type. Vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels area have already produced numerous award winning red wines for Villa Maria.

Villa Maria