> Review this wine
Winemaker n/a
Vintage 2002
Region Hawkes Bay
Release Date n/a
Cellaring
Pleasant to consume now however, this grenache will continue to develop to 2007.
Review
Flavours of plum and strawberry with a spicy character. A backbone of sweet red berries weaves through the medium bodied palate finishing with pleasant subtle soft tannins.
Food Match
Try this Matua Valley Innovator Grenache with Middle Eastern Beef Koftas served on couscous with hummus. Technical Details
Winemaker's Notes
Grenache is a hot climate variety that is used for blending and has an important place in the Rhone wines from France and is also grown in the vineyards of Rioja in Spain. Equally important are the highly regarded rose wines that grenache produces from Tavel, Gigondas and C*tes-du-Rh*ne.
It is highly productive and yields well in dry hot areas that other vines would find it difficult to survive in. The vines that produced the fruit for this wine were grown in the Hawkes Bay region in the Matheson Vineyard at Ngatarawa. This area is well known as a quality red wine zone and has produced many award winning wines for Matua Valley.
The fruit was hand harvested and crushed into open top stainless steel fermenters where it was refrigerated and cold macerated for 96 hours before returning to ambient temperature and inoculating with a cultured yeast. The cold maceration extracted extra colour phenolics and colour from the thin skins.
The wine was hand plunged every 8 hours during the eight day fermentation to further maximise colour and flavour extraction. At the conclusion of fermentation it was racked to seasoned oak barriques for 12 months maturation and malo-lactic fermentation.
Harvest Date n/a
