de la terre Hawke’s Bay Reserve Tannat 2019

de la terre is a small, family owned winery, operated mainly by Tony Prichard, the former winemaker of Church Road winery. The first vintage kicked off by 2009, and cellar door had been open to the public early 2010. The winery again expanded in 2014 to enable some processing of fruit on site. A small café adjacent to the winery was opened at the end of that year.

“de la terre” largely means “out of the earth”, emphasize Tony’s vision of expressing the unique terroir of Hawke’s Bay.

Tannat’s presence in New Zealand is rather unusual. The variety originated in South-west France, widely planted in department of Lot and Pyrenees, most famously known in Madiran AOC. The variety’s etymology involves the word “tannin”, its characteristics are rather self-explanatory. The thick skin of the berries means the variety is suited to grow under warmer climate. If the berries are fully macerated into the must, can produce wines with high tannin, and harsh mouthfeel. Even after decades of bottle ageing, may still need hours to decant, to serve properly.

Amongst New World wines, Tannat is commonly found in Uruguay and part of Argentina.

For de la terre’s oenology. Hyper-oxidation method was involved making this Tannat, which involves pumping air through cold-soaked marc before fermentation. It provides an improved mouthfeel in the final product. Phenolic compounds are associated with harshness in the palate and reducing the length of the wine. Wines made using hyper-oxidation are usually softer, more ‘linear’ and have a longer and more refined finish.

The finished wine was aged in barrels for more than a year, approximately 30% new French oak. Un-fined and unfiltered before bottling. Estate bottled, hand-labelled and individually hand-numbered. A typical vintage sees between 2000 and 3000 bottles of these wines produced.

While tasting this wine, people can typically discover that there is a burst of black cherry fruit with a fresh lively mid-palate. The winemaking was directed towards softening the tannins to create mid-palate ‘flesh’ tannins support rather than dominate the palate here. Acid has been managed to enhance the wines vibrancy and fruit. A low estimate for bottle ageing potential would be 10 years, it may still drink very well in fifteen to twenty years time.