Cape Crest '13

Tasting Notes 2013

 Cape Crest '13 is a brilliant diamond-white colour with wonderful notes of ripe lime, white flowers and lemon curd. The palate shows great concentration of guava, toast and smoked figs, with great acid cut and precision. Its weight balance and sustained finish ensure Cape Crest '13 will develop over a decade or more. Already delicious, with amazing potential. It's a gem!

 Cape Crest ’13 is a blend of 86% sauvignon blanc, 9% semillon, and 5% sauvignon gris. Closed with leading technology ‘DIAM’ corks. A technical cork, these eliminate any possibility of cork taint and, when Cape Crest is well cellared, they provide consistent evolution for every bottle. Cape Crest ’13 will continue to develop in bottle for five years from harvest.

This wine is a wonderful example of Hawke's Bay's remarkable 2013 growing season, already described by the UK's Decanter magazine as 'the stuff of legends'.   

Technical Analysis

pH: 3.1
Total acidity as tartaric: 7.2g/l
Alcohol: 14%
Residual sugar: Dry

Winemaking

The separate parcels were each destemmed and lightly crushed, then cooled before a brief period of skin contact. Following pressing and cold-settling, they were run to a mixture of new and seasoned French oak barrels for fermentation. The resulting wines were aged on lees, with regular stirring, for a further eight months before blending in December 2013. The blend was returned to tank for a further two month maturation on fine lees, before fining and bottling in February 2014.

Vineyards

The fully ripe grapes for Cape Crest ’13 were hand harvested from individual plots within Te Mata Estate’s vineyards between 11 and 18 March 2013.

Origin

Cape Crest and its gannet symbol refer to Cape Kidnappers, the southern point of Hawke Bay, home to the world’s largest mainland colony of these remarkable marine birds.

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