Blake Family Vineyard

Our first commercially available Blake Family Vineyard wine - although in very limited numbers - will be the 2004 vintage 'Redd Gravels', to be released in September 2007. If you would like to be informed of when our releases become available to purchase, please contact us via our Sales page to be added to our mailing list.

During November 2006 we held several tastings to introduce interested parties to our Blake Family Vineyard wines in progress, as well as our 'Alluviale' releases.

Geoff Kelly of geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz has published an indepth review of the entire blind tasting, covering 21 prominent Bordeaux (both banks), New Zealand and Napa wines. Geoff has kindly allowed us to reproduce his tasting notes of a tank sample of our 2005 wine here.

2005 Blake Family Vineyard assembled tank sample 19 + *****
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand: 13.9%; $ –
[ cork; Me 40%, CS 30, CF 30 @ c. 1.25 kg / vine, 4300 vines / ha; French oak; the score should be in square brackets [ 19 + ] to indicate the sample is not the final 'as bottled' wine]

Ruby, carmine and velvet, a glorious colour, deeper, denser and more velvety than the 2005 Alluviale, in fact, the deepest colour of the set. Bouquet is deeply and darkly floral, subtle and sensuous. Below the florals the depth of fruit is sensational, pure cassis and darkest plums, plus some toasty new oak. On palate, the concentration of florals and fruit is a joy to behold, the flavour more implicit than explicit, but the richness and dry extract already palpable on tongue. If this builds the bouquet in bottle that the '05 Alluviale already shows, and with the finesse of its oak, this will be a great wine. It will be more in a St Emilion style than a Medoc one. It is much richer than the 2005 Alluviale, yet shows no sign of sur maturité. There is a compelling climatic contrast between the near-perfection this winestyle displays, versus the elephantine Caymus. The two wines illustrate just how marvellous the Hawkes Bay climate is for Bordeaux / Hawkes Bay blends.

Cellar 5 - 20 + years.

To read a comprehensive article covering the entire tasting of 21 wines,
including our wines to date, please click here.
Reproduced with kind permission of Geoff Kelly, www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz