THE PATRIARCH 2002

Overview:
The Patriarch 2002 is the first vintage made as a Bordeaux style red blend. The Patriarch is only produced in outstanding vintages.

Grapes: 
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 20% Malbec

Region:
Hawke`s Bay

Winemakers:
Adam Hazeldine

Recommended Food:
Ideal with roasted red meats. It makes a good partner for a whole fillet beef, roasted rare. Also perfect with a tasty winter casseroled stew.

Recommended Cellaring: 
7-10 years

Production Notes:
The various parcels were hand harvested and vinified separately in small concrete vats with hand plunging. After an extended time on skins the new wines were drained to small oak barriques, (French and American), to mature. The blend was assembled in January 2003 and returned to oak for further ageing. A total of 17 months was spent in barrel. The wine was bottled on the 30th January 2004.

Tasting Notes:
A warm and balanced wine, with a strong bouquet of spice and blackberry with a touch of chocolate and cedar. The palate is full and rich with smooth tannins. The notes of blackberry and chocolate follow through into the mouth along with hints of plum, tobacco and spicy oak on the finish.

Awards:
GOLD MEDAL
-Japan Wine Challenge, 2005

Reviews:
"Dense and youthful in colour, it's a powerful, fruit-crammed wine with vibrant blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, highly concentrated and firm. Built for long term cellaring."
5 STARS
-Michael Cooper, Buyer's guide to NZ Wines, 2005

"A deep, inky  blend with rich ripe flavours that include dark berry,
licorice and spice plus a solid and appropriate influence of toasty oak. A big wine but perfectly balanced and with obvious cellaring potential."
89 POINTS
-Bob Campbell, MW, New Zealand Wine Writer, July, 2005

"A delicious regional statement, quite intense yet never heavy, a finely textured red with class, complexity and elegance. A great credit to both the winemaker and the viticultural team. No hurry for three years at least; very good drinking ahead."
5 STARS
-Winestate Magazine, March/April, 2006 

“From the famous 'Gimblett Gravels' area of Hawke's Bay, this is superb. Meticulous fruit selection through hand picking and sorting plus 17 months in oak have fashioned a gorgeously textured red blend in perfect balance. Savoury spice and black berry fruit aromas give way to a juicy mouthful of ripe cherry, black licorice and spicy black plum flavours. The finish is fruit forward, tangy, elegant and lengthy. Drink now to 2012.”
5 STARS
-Vic Harradine, Winecurrent.com, Canada, June, 2006

"Garnet and ruby hues provide the base for the clear, clean and brilliant appearance. Ripe cassis-like fruit, with red plum, leafy herbal richness and fragrant smoky oak make up the bouquet. The palate is broad with a good alcoholic base, ripe tannins and fine acidity. Well balanced and a long finish."
-Japan Wine Challenge Magazine, January, 2007

"Very classy blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec that looks set for a very long life. Bold, youthful colour, with beautifully ripe, super-charged flavours of blackcurrants and nuts. Warm, dense and savoury."
5 STARS
-Winestate Magazine, Sept-Oct 2007

"Cabernet Sauvignon 62%, Merlot 19% & Malbec 19%. This is elegant yet intense, graceful yet concentrated with underlying power. A very youthful looking wine exhibiting ripe black plums, black berries with a hint of sweet herbs. The palate has ripe fruit characters and a seamless texture from start to finish. The tannins are ripe and firm with an excellent length of flavour. A wine with perfect balance and harmony expressing the varieties beautifully in a classic frame. Outstanding. At its best: now to 2012." 
5 STARS
-WineOrbit Review, Sam Kim, August 2007 

"Most delicious; intense yet never heavy, a finely textured red with some class, complexity and elegance. Excellent. A strong sub-regional statement. No hurry for three years at least."
-Peter Saunders, A Guide to New Zealand Wine 2007

"This is Babich's best red, regardless of the variety or vineyard, and only produced in top years.  All vintages up to and including 2000 (5 STARS) were unblended Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the company's shingly vineyards in Gimblett Road, Hawke's Bay.  Dark and lush, with the aromas of blackcurrants and spicy oak, The Patriarch is typically a seductive warm ripe and complex red, deliciously rich.  Early releases were American oak-aged, to give a more upfront style than Irongate Cabernet/Merlot, but the wine is now matured for 15 to 22 months in mostly French oak barriques (30 per cent new).  Built for the long haul, the exceptional 2002 vintage is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60 per cent), Merlot (20 per cent) and Malbec (20 per cent).  Dense and still youthful in colour, it's a powerful, fruit-crammed wine with vibrant blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, superbly concentrated and firm.  There is no 2001 or 2003.
5 STARS
-Michael Cooper's A Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines 2008