2018 Villa Maria Ngakirikiri Cabernet Sauvignon

Brand	Villa Maria Estate
Region	Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
Varietal	Cabernet Sauvignon
Size	750ml
Alcohol %	13.5%
Vintage	2018
Country	New Zealand

The 2018 season was one for the ages, the 2018 Hawkes Bay vintage followed on from one of the warmest summers on record providing superb conditions for ripening, with heat summation finishing well ahead of the long-term average. A hot year combined with cooler nights locked in the freshness of the grapes, allowing the Esk team to pick at leisure. Right from the time they fermented this wine, they knew they had something special on their hands, the wine spending 21 days on skins and 20 months in roughly 60% French Oak. A blend of 90% Cabernet, 8% Merlot and 2% Malbec. One of the great wines ever made in NZ, this will be extremely long-lived and drinking well long after most of us are gone.

A faultless bouquet of the purest Cabernet – vibrant cassis, violet and rose florals, with an array of berries kissed with leather and the cedary perfume of a humidor full of Cuban cigars.

Silky and densely concentrated in the mouth, the tannins are so finely rendered they become one with the concentrated fruit. Complex suggestions of dried herbs, espresso and blackcurrant, the finish is interminably long, with dimensions of flavour unfurling on the back palate. A symphony in crimson, Ngakirikiri will only be released in the finest years… but all subsequent years will be forever compared to this stunning debut.