Oyster Bay Hawkes Bay Merlot
$1699each
$203DOZEN
WineryOyster Bay
Fruit Merlot
Regions Hawkes Bay
  New Zealand
Each $16.99
$203.00
Currently out of stock
Enjoying a temperate maritime climate, Oyster Bay's Hawkes Bay vines are warmed by strong clear sunlight during the day and cooled at night by the sea breezes of the Pacific Ocean. This is the idyllic environment for Merlot to grow it's vibrant, fully ripened varietal flavours. Oyster Bay is about elegance and intensity of fruit, a Pinot Noir of freshness, sweet spice and soft tannins. The glorious fruit ripeness provides a burst of rich juicy black plum flavours, whilst a touch of subtle oak contributes complexity, softness and warmth.
Grapes are destemmed and crushed into fermenters. The musts are inoculated with pure yeast cultures, selected for their capacity to enhance aromatics and preserve varietal fruit characters. A selection of Bordeaux barriques by renowned coopers Demptos and Jaegle, Sylvain and Dargaud, air seasoned for a minimum of three years, serves to impart complexity. Tailored rackings and pump overs are employed to extract the most delicate of tannins. Following a gentle press and primary ferments, the wine completes malolactic in a mix of tank and French oak barriques. A component is barrel aged for several months, adding softness and complexity. The assembled wine is treated to a gentle egg white fining.
TASTING NOTES
Purple/ red colour. Ripe bouquets of generous red and black berry fruit, dark plum and a touch of briar. Well integrated smoky and slightly spicy oak melds with the freshness of ripe fruit, spice and a touch of vanillin, supported by soft tannins. A delicious Merlot wine, finishing with sweet berry flavours, aromatic spice and lingering silken textures.
Wines by Oyster Bay
About the Oyster Bay Winery
From its very first vintage, which won gold and the coveted Marquis de Goulaine Trophy for Best Sauvignon Blanc at the 22nd International Wine & Spirit Competition in London 1991, Oyster Bay has continued to define the very essence of Marlborough
Set in the alluvial heart of Marlborough, one of the world's most recognised wine-growing regions and a place as beautiful as it is abundant, you will find the vineyards that grew the reputation of Oyster Bay. Here, on the shallow stony soils of the tranquil Wairau Plains, where long, slow summers and cool autumn nights give birth to grapes of intense and fruity flavours, Oyster Bay began, from the very outset, to produce wines of international stature. Oyster Bay»