2009 Mission Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Hawkes Bay

The famous Gimblett Gravel soil in Hawkes Bay produce this interesting & complex Cabernet Sauvignon. Plum, smoke and tobacco notes followed with fine tannins and bright acidity. This wine would be delicious decanted for an hour or so alongside pepper-crusted steak, roasted winter vegetables, & herbed fingerling potatoes! Alternatively, if you can wait a few years, this wine will continue to evolve in the bottle in a quiet cellar.

What a pleasant suprise from our last New Zealand tasting. This Cab has fruit and structure that compares to any California Cab in the same price range. Wonderfully balanced with very well rounded fruit, there is plenty of structure here to enjoy now with a steak or to put away for a few years.

This elegant cabernet really stood out at our recent staff tasting of antipodean wines. Brimming with cassis, slatey mineral and spiced plum aromas, the wine was silky, well proportioned and would make a fabulous accompaniment to a roast beef dinner.

A stunning wine from the Gimblett Gravels area of Hawkes Bay. This area famed for its remarkable gravel soil from an ancient river bed is producing some wines that truly are some of the best value you will find anywhere. Mission Estate have some great holdings on the Gimblett Gravels where the majority of this fruit comes from. The wine has a beautiful pronounced nose of bramble fruits and violets. The palate is lush and concentrated but without being over extracted. Great oak integration adding some spice to the long finish. This Reserve level wine is such good value for money others better watch out! If you haven't had many Gimblett Gravels wines, this is a great one to start with!

Most of the luscious fruit for this excellent reserve wine (comprised of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9.5% Merlot and 5.5% Cabernet Franc) originated in the extraordinary Gimblett Gravels region in Hawkes Bay, an ancient alluvial river bed comprised of free-draining, low-fertility soils that has achieved near cult status for its astonishing terroir specially suited to the cultivation of Bordeaux varietals and Syrah. Such is the nature of these unique stony soils that heat is both stored and radiated throughout the vines, achieving ideal ripening conditions while offering protection from the cool breezes that migrate from the nearby coast. Still youthfully fresh and vibrant, this wine possesses real charm in its cassis, black plum, suave mocha and floral aromatics, and the finely delineated tannins give it enough structure to evolve for a few more years.