Villa Maria Red Wines 2010

Villa Maria almost dominate the New Zealand wine scene with an amazing range of wines and vineyards. This Pinot is sourced from the Wairau and Awatere Valleys of Marlborough that provide the perfect climate and soil for Pinot to thrive. All the character you look for in quality Pinot is crammed in here, raspberry, ripe cherries and some spice on the nose while the palate is soft and savoury with complex web of fine grained tannins holding it all in place. A great accompaniment to all things mushroom and gamey.

Villa Maria has become one of the most awarded Kiwi wineries, drawing on vineyard holdings spread all over the country. This wine, made with fruit from Hawkes Bay shows how far New Zealand has come with Syrah or Shiraz as we affectionately know it. It’s the soil and climate of the region that lends the wines such distinctive flavour profiles. It’s loaded with red fruits, florals and peppery spice with a fleshy, soft palate. Nicely balanced with soft tannin and natural acid, it goes hand in hand with food.

Marlborough is stepping up to the plate when it comes to producing Pinot Noir and we think this one from multi-award winning Villa Maria ticks all the right boxes. All the classic elements you could hope to find in a Pinot are here, elegant and seductive cherry fruit, complexing aromas of plums and spice add interest too. As well as a finessed palate it’s beautifully concentrated and rich with full-bodied fruit and nicely framed tannins. Enjoy it now or cellar for a few years to see how it develops.

Deep, inky syrah with formidable concentration providing layers of dark berry, licorice, spice, vanilla and nutty oak flavours. Big, complex, brooding wine with obvious potential but offering a great deal of pleasure now.

Villa Maria has long produced some of Marlborough's finest pinots, and as the region's reds continue to rise, one of the country's largest family-owned wineries continues to set the pace. The fruit focus on display here is captivating in its aromas of violets and its flavours of black cherries and blackberries. The palate is fine-tuned with a honed focus of supple, finely textured tannins and acidity that carries on a tangy finish, propelling black cherry fruits long and persistent.