The Reserve wine is only made in vintages where the top quality wine can be made.
Once all of the wine of the vintage has been in barrel for 6 months, and
malolactic fermentation is complete, an evaluation of each barrel can be made.
The top barrels, usually 4, are blended into this wine and aged for a further 12
months. Only french oak is used.
Vintage 2015 Michael Cooper's New Zealand WInes 2021 5 Stars
"powerful, fleshy, rich red with deep ripe blackcurrent plum and spice flavours, complex, savoury and supple. Drinking well now it should mature gracefully for a decade"
Vintage 2014 Michael Cooper 4 1/2 Stars
Vintage 2013 Dish Tasting Panel Merlot June-July 2015 5 Stars and Third Overall
"Great Colour dense and bright showing lovely oak, nice complexity, vanilla
spiced plum, sweet fruit entry, generous approachable and juicy.
Luscious texture and solid length of flavour"
Vintage 2013 New Zealand International Wine Show 2016 Silver
Vintage 2020 $44
The Reserve was made from 63% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 12% Petit Verdot.
The wine was cold soaked for 24 hours before the addition of
cultured bordeaux yeast. Merlot is crushed and processed separately while
Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are processed together. Ferments generally
lasted 7 days with a maximum temperature of 30C. After a further 7 day maceration,
the wines were moved to fine grained french oak, 40% new. Malolactic fermentation was done in barrel and
completed after 6 months. Barrel selection and blending was performed in January 2021 and the blended wine moved back to barrel for another 8 months.
The final blend was from 47% new oak.
Vintage 2019 $44
The Reserve was made from 54% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc and 11% Petit Verdot.
The wine was cold soaked for 24 hours before the addition of
cultured bordeaux yeast. Merlot is crushed and processed separately while
Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are processed together. Ferments generally
lasted 7 days with a maximum temperature of 30C. After a further 7 day maceration,
the wines were moved to fine grained french oak, 40% new. Malolactic fermentation was done in barrel and
completed after 6 months. Barrel selection and blending was performed in January 2020 and the blended wine moved back to barrel for another 8 months.
The final blend was from 47% new oak.
Vintage 2016, 2017 and 2018
Not made.
Vintage 2015 (Sold out)
The Reserve was made from 66% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 9% Petit Verdot.
The wine was cold soaked for 24 hours before the addition of
cultured bordeaux yeast. Merlot is crushed and processed separately while
Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are processed together. Ferments generally
lasted 7 days with a maximum temperature of 30C. After a further 7 day maceration,
the wines were moved to fine grained french oak, 40% new. Malolactic fermentation was done in barrel and
completed after 8 months. Barrel selection and blending was performed in
January 2016 and the blended wine moved back to barrel for another 8 months.
The final blend was from 40% new oak.
Vintage 2014 (Sold out)
The Reserve was made from 73% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.
This reflected the better performance of Merlot in this a dry but somewhat
cooler year. The wine was cold soaked for 24 hours before the addition of
cultured bordeaux yeast. Merlot is crushed and processed separately while
Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are processed together. Ferments generally
lasted 7 days with a maximum temperature of 30C. After a further 7 day maceration,
the wines were moved to fine grained french oak, 33% new. Malolactic fermentation was done in barrel and
completed after 7 months. Barrel selection and blending was performed in
November 2014 and the blended wine moved back to barrel for another 9 months.
The final blend was from 50% new oak.
Vintage 2013 (Sold Out)
The Reserve was made from 62% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc and 9% Petit Verdot. A
perfect year gave us the opportunity to blend with freedom. The wine was cold
soaked for 24 hours before the addition of cultured bordeaux yeast. Merlot is
crushed and processed separately whilke Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are
processed together. Ferments generally lasted 7 days with a maximum temperature
of 30C. After a further 7 day maceration, the wines were then moved to fine grained french oak, 33% new.
Malolactic fermentation was done in barrel and completed after 7 months. Barrel
selection and blending was performed in November 2014 and the blended wine moved
back to barrel for another 9 months. The final blend was from 50% new oak.