A classic pure 100% Cabernet Franc with beautiful balance twixt tannins and fruit and classical red berry bouquet (raspberries and cherries), blackcurrent and subtle chocolate on its long finish with its famous, smooth,  fine-grained tannins. The London Sunday Times described our Cab Franc as capable of clubbing any Chinon you have ever tasted into the ground!

VARIETY AND STYLE

A single vineyard, unblended, unfined, unfiltered, 100% pure Cabernet Franc, grown and produced on our home estate vineyard of Jurassic Ridge, at Church Bay (Hangaura) on the Western Approaches  of Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf. After elevage, it has been cellar-aged and released in the winery Cellar Door in April 2019, after seven years of cellar-ageing in bottle to achieve what we think is a near-perfect balance. Still vibrantly youthful in that intermediate stage, but in our opinion it is now drinking at its best and will continue to do so for at least the next 5 -8 years in a good cellar.

BEAUTIFUL BALANCE WITH ABSOLUTELY TYPICAL VARIETAL PERSONALITY! This wine from one of the cooler and wetter vintages on the island has surprised us by the development in the bottle. As for the Montepulciano from the same year it caused us to rethink this vintage by demonstrating the ability of our vineyard and bottle-ageing in cellar to achieve wonderful wines in almost any year! This wine really started to impress us six years from harvest.Time for development in bottle is critical.

While clearly a lighter style than we generally produce – ie compared with the 2008, 2009 and 2010 ‘bigger’ vintages in particular,  the elegance of the balance twixt tannins and fruit is just perfect – at least for our palates, and indeed so far for many of those visitors who have tasted it.