Trinity Hill - Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot (2002) - 17/20

So - I was minding my own business, walking down a local New World supermarket in Manawatu, when I just happened to spy a row of black coloured wine bottles, containing a meritage blend of grapes with 8 years of age, from a well respected Hawkes Bay winery.

Fantastic - who needs to cellar wine when you can buy this sort of quality, ready to drink, at the local market?

62% Cabernet sauvignon, 28% Merlot and 10% cabernet franc
Alcohol : 13.5%
My Rating : 17 / 20 - Three and a half stars

Produced and bottled from the Gimblett Road area by Trinity Hill, you know that you're going to get a serious wine - and the $35 supermarket price tag seems fair value.

Initial tastes are dense, deep fruit, a firmly structured red with strong drying tannins. It is a solid, serious red with significant oak and chocolate undercurrents, spice and tar flavours. Blueberries and spice.

I saved a couple of glasses for the next day, vacuum pump sealing the bottle overnight, and the palete had barely changed, still retaining that complex savoury taste.

It's good but does really need some food to go with it as it is a big, big flavour. It was perfect with roast meats - roast pork in this case. Mmmm.

Te Mata Coleraine (1997) - 19.5/20

Let's start this wine blog with a real star - over the last two nights I've enjoyed a bottle of Te Mata's premium wine - the 1997 vintage of Coleraine.

55% Cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot and 15% cabernet franc

Alcohol : 13.0%

My Rating : 19.5 / 20 - Five Stars

I've been a fan of Hawkes Bay reds for a while now, and the Te Mata vineyard in particular, but truth to be told I've usually found the Coleraine just a little bit too "big" and not to my taste - instead prefering the little brother "Awatea".

This bottle of 1997 Coleraine has changed my mind.

I wanted something to enjoy with a nice rack of lamb, and the Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blends of Hawkes Bay came quickly to mind. A quick check of the Te Mata wine vintage chart on their website showed that the 1997 Coleraine and Awatea were at their peak, and as I have a few bottles of the 1997 Coleraine stashed away I broke one out.

Previously, I've found that Coleraine is a little too overpowering, and despite the rave reviews that this wine often gets from mainstream wine journalists, I've personally found the individual elements on the palette are usually far from merged and quite astringent.

But, always prepared to give a wine a fair trial, especially if I've already stumped up for a dozen bottles, I took the website at it's word and popped the cork and decanted, via an aerator. The smell was instantly attractive, a merge of wine, oak, and a faint hint of the musty smells of the cellar.

This vintage is perfect, a wonderful blend of three classic grapes, and right now I would say that it's a match for the best of it's style and would hold up against the best of Bordeaux. The 1997 Coleraine is a perfect wine with lamb, and most roast meat.

The 2008 Coleraine is available from Te Mata Vineyards now (at NZ$69 per bottle) and it's a very similar makeup of grapes and has been very well praised by those in the know, and the 2008 could be a real treat in 10-11 years time if you can wait that long. It will be worth the wait !