Te Mata Estate - Awatea Cabernets Merlot - 2021

50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc. Tasted alongside the 2020 and while they’re obviously similar, there’s more acidity and leafy perfume in the 2021. Blackcurrant, raspberry and leaf, tobacco, and spicy perfume, pencil/cedar oak. Medium-bodied, tannin sits so nicely within the wine, fresh and long, with classic fragrance in with that. So ‘minerally’ and cool. Very long. Precision and definition mark it out as a wine of class and fine filigreed deliciousness. It’s just so good, energetic, stony and definitely worthy of cellaring. Superb. 95+ Points Gary Walsh, The Wine Front