Paritua 21·12 2018

Reviews

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit: 97/100. Immensely complex and engaging, showing cassis, blackberry, smoked game, cedar, tobacco and violet aromas on the nose. It’s concentrated and richly textured on the palate offering fabulous fruit power combined with savoury nuances, leading to an impressively long structured finish.

Cameron Douglas MS: 96/100.  Powerful core of blackberry and roasted plums, a touch of dark chocolate and smoky tobacco oak complexities. Youthful, intense and compelling bouquet. Full-bodied, rich in flavour and texture with barrel spices and fruit flavours that mirror the nose. Firm tannins are abundant and ripe, There’s no mistaking the toasty oak and barrel spice layers. A complex and powerful wine that will age for some years to come. Best drinking from 2024 through 2030+.

Bob Campbell, MW (The Real Review): 96/100. 

Michael Cooper: 5 stars. Set for a long life... Deeply coloured, it is a powerful, sturdy red, with a rich surge of ripe blackcurrant, plum, and spice flavours, seasoned with nutty oak, impressive complexity, fine tannins and a long, very harmonious finish. Best drinking 2024+.

Tasting Note

A complex aroma of blackberry, black currant, black Doris plum and cocoa powder with floral hints of violet and spicy notes of cardamom, anise and clove. The palate has great structure and intensity of flavour. A silky textured attack with plush, concentrated blackberry and firm mid palate tannin. Ripe Black Doris plum, cocoa and spice flavours with a hint of petrichor minerality and a long savoury fine grained tannin finish. The wine has fine cellaring potential.

Aromas and flavours

Additional information

Type: Red wine

Varials: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot 20%, 15% Cabernet Franc.

Suggested food match: Enjoy with red meats, hearty roasted game, and rich mushroom dishes.

Alcohol: 14.5% vol

Residual sugar:  <1 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulphites

Vineyard: The very best sub blocks on the Paritua Vineyard at 2112 Maraekakaho Road have been selected to grow extremely low yielding vines. Management and care for this flagship wine starts with pruning. The vines are manicured from then onwards, with crop thinning to one bunch per cane and a manual leaf-pluck pre veraison. The canopy is kept open to provide for airflow and sun exposure. At optimum ripeness we hand harvest selected rows.

Winemaking: Whole bunches are de-stemmed, and the berries are then sorted using our optical grape sorter, then crushed to a closed fermenter. After a period of cold soak, we inoculate with preferred yeast. Temperatures are then managed to reach about 30°C. Once the ferment is dry the wine is tasted to evaluate maceration time, usually 20 to 28 days post ferment, Malolactic fermentation occurs on skins during maceration, and then finally basket pressed to barrel. Barrels are stored in temperature-controlled rooms, at 8 degrees Celsius. Paritua aim for about 50% new French oak barriques. Elevage in barrel will take up to 24 months. Final barrel selection and blending takes place approximately 8 weeks before bottling.

Cellaring potential: 2030+

Closure: cork

Produced and bottled by: Paritua Vineyards, 2112 Maraekakaho Road, Rd 1, Hastings, New Zealand.

Distributor: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany