Oyster Bay Merlot 2020

Bright cherry aromas and rich plum, with subtle spice and a soft, lingering texture.

The philosophy of Oyster Bay is to produce fine, distinctly regional Super Premium wines that are elegant and assertive, with glorious fruit flavours. Oyster Bay produces wines from the renowned regions of Marlborough and Hawke's Bay.

Hawke’s Bay Growing Region The Hawke’s Bay region, located on the East Coast of the North Island, is one of New Zealand’s warmest grape-growing climates. As a micro-climate the Gimblett Gravels sub region experiences warmer air temperatures throughout the summer growing season than other viticultural localities of the Hawke’s Bay. The accumulated heat and day/night temperature differences, together with the free draining, gravel soils, deliver the dense fruit flavor and more structured tannins of our Merlot wines. Soil Type Omahu stony gravels and Red Metal soils. Fertile alluvial deposits over gravelly subsoils with low water holding capacity

As a founding member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, we are conscious of our environment and we work hard to identify sensitive areas such as wetlands, streams, and native vegetation to ensure that our vineyard practices do not affect the plants and animals that inhabit these areas. We minimize our water usage through our state-of-the-art soil moisture probe technology. We look after our soils by having interrow ground cover plantings, and by spreading our mulch underneath our vines, to provide a botanically diverse ground which encourages beneficial insects into our vineyards.

The fruit was destemmed, crushed and transferred into stainless steel fermentation tanks. The must was inoculated with pure yeast cultures to enhance varietal aromatics and fruit characters. Tailored cap management techniques were performed during fermentation to obtain delicate fruit tannins and maximize flavor and color extraction. Following gentle pressing, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation in tank and in French oak barriques. A large portion of the blend was then aged in French oak barriques for 11 months to impart softness and complexity to the wine