A youthful and bright garnet red our Merlot has a pretty nose of black and red berries, some sweet spice notes and a touch of cedar and leather from French oak. The palate shows more raspberry and dark cherry flavours within a framework of moderate tannins and balanced sweet fruit. Fruit forward and soft on the palate this wine will be in its prime in its youth, 2 - 3 years from bottling.
The Tohu Merlot is crushed and destemmed into temperature controlled stainless steel tanks where a cold soak of 2-3 days extracts maximum flavour and aroma. A fast fermentation with selected yeast strains is allowed to peak around 32 Celcius. The fermented skins are pressed after daily tasting and the resulting wine is encouraged through malolactic ferment in tank before racking of the settled wine. High quality French oak is utilised in tank with the aim of providing complexity but still maximising fruit purity. Filtered and lightly fined the traditional way with egg whites we bottle this wine within twelve months for an easy drinking style.
Grown in the Brunton Road area of Gisborne our Merlot is comprised of clones 3 and 481 and are trained onto a Sylvos trellising system and is both shoot and crop thinned to maintain quality and restrict yields. Leaf plucking is carried out for both ripening and disease management. These grapes were harvested in two picks in late March and benefited from another great Gisborne vintage.
A great match with barbeques in summer or heartier winter stews this wine will complement both.
|