Concentrated, ripe blackberry and Christmas cake aromas. Warm and rich on the palate with mocha flavours and fine, supple tannins on the finish.

Rich game dishes, roast lamb or full-flavoured, hard cheese.

Only made in exceptional vintages, this wine was grown in the Bridge Pa Triangle sub-region of Hawke’s Bay. Warm temperatures, coupled with free draining red metal gravels, provide the ideal conditions for growing Merlot. Crops were thinned down to one bunch per shoot to provide ripe and concentrated fruit flavours.

Following harvest, the fruit was de-stemmed and partially crushed into open top fermenters, which were hand-plunged twice daily. Primary fermentation took approximately seven days, the wine then stayed on skins for a further three weeks before pressing. The wine was racked to barrel to complete malolactic fermentation and was matured in these French oak barriques (225L) for 14 months; 50% new. The best portions were selected and blended for the Sileni EV Merlot