Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Cabernet Franc
Hawke's Bay
Ideal with roasted red meats. It makes a good partner for a whole fillet beef, roasted rare. Also perfect with a tasty winter casseroled stew.
Up to 10 years
Selected crops of fruit were harvested, then fermented in small open vats and hand plunged. After an extended maceration period the new wines were drained to French oak casks (35% new), to mature. The wine spent a total of 15 months in oak.
Alcohol: 13.8%
TA: 6.4g/l
pH: 3.69
Residual Sugar: Dry
Warm and plummy aromas mingle with iron, cassis and blackberry. The palate is dark fruited, smooth and dense with plum, cedar and spice. Fine, seamless tannins and lingering savoury notes.
13.8%
Various
Regular cap management (3-4 per day), extended post ferment maceration with skins.
Open top fermenters
Yes
Gelatin
22.5-23 Brix; pH 3.4-3.5; TA 4.9-6.2 g/l
Merlot 30th March, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc 12-15th April
Machine and handpicked
Yes
15 months in French oak casks, 35% new
3.69
Crushed & de-stemmed
Dry
6.4 g/l
2016
GOLD MEDAL – China Wine & Spirits Awards 2018
GOLD MEDAL – China Wine & Spirits Awards 2019
94 POINTS – Bob Campbell, www.therealreview.com, July 2018
5 STARS – Michael Cooper, www.michaelcooper.co.nz, 2018 and 2019
5 STARS – Winestate Magazine, Nov 2019 issue
“The Heritage Anniversary Label is a blast from the past, but this dense and flavoursome Gimblett Gravels blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc is as modern as a Tesla EV. Quite a concentrated, oaky red, with dark berry, liquorice, and spice flavours together with a slightly syrupy texture.
94 POINTS, Bob Campbell MW, www.therealreview.com, Jul 2018
“Carrying the company’s Cabernet Sauvignon label from the 1970s, the classy, elegant 2016 vintage (5*) is a celebration of Babich’s 100-year history, produced in quite large volumes (about 1,000 cases). French oak-aged for 15 months, it is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Full-coloured, with fresh, youthful, blackcurrant-like aromas, it is mouthfilling and supple, with strong, ripe cassis, plum and spice flavours, nutty, savoury notes adding complexity, fine-grained tannins, and a very harmonious finish. Still a baby, it should be long-lived; open 2021+.”
5 STARS
-Michael Cooper, www.michaelcooper.co.nz, 2018
“Clad in the company’s cabernet sauvignon label from the 1970s, this 100th anniversary red is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc, grown in the Gimblett Gravels and French oak-aged for 16 months. A very elegant, ‘complete’ wine, it is deeply coloured, with concentrated blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, showing excellent complexity, fine-grained tannins, and impressive vigour and harmony.”
5 STARS
-Winestate Magazine, Nov 2019 issue
