BEST TREASURES FOR THE CELLAR: REDS
Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Le Sol 2019 ($150) ★★★★★
This year marks two decades since the very first Le Sol syrah was produced and since then it’s only been released when the fruit is faultless and every vintage has a skite sheet stacked with accolades from across the globe. The 2019 is next-level. The Le Sol style is one of purity and power, delicacy and decisiveness, with violets and blueberries dusted with pepper and graphite. The tannins are svelte and suede-like and it just dances across the tongue. It’ll only become more sublime over the coming decade. craggyrange.com
Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Prison Block Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 ($120)
★★★★★
Deep, dark, intensely fruity, spicy, toasty, earthy, cocoa-crammed and leathery, it’s a lovely, muscular crafted from grapes grown beside the Ngaruroro River on a stony site once destined to be a correctional facility. This 100 per cent cabernet sauvignon absolutely screams tobacco, dark plum, bouquet garni herbs and bitter chocolate, it unveils sexily in the glass and has immense palate structure from its firm tannins. Young sure, but shows will become a titan in the cellar. trinityhill.com
Mudbrick Reserve Waiheke Island Merlot Petit Verdot Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2020 ($75) ★ ★★★★
Glossy and gorgeous in the glass its powerful perfume and palate absolutely heaves with dark plum and cherry concentration. Powerfully structured, it’s a fleshy red with a rich, spicesaturated core and incredible persistence of flavour. It’s simply unputdownable. Stylish and supple, and if this is how good it tastes now, it’s staggering to think where it can go. mudbrick.co.nz
Cloudy Bay Te Wahi Central Otago
Pinot Noir 2017 ($115)
★★★★★
A few years back, Marlborough icon Cloudy Bay acquired two of Central Otago’s finest pinot vineyards, Northburn Station on the road to Bendigo and the famous Calvert site, in Bannockburn to fulfil their pinot noir dreams. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured for a year in 30 per cent new French oak barrels, it’s a powerful, softly seductive pinot with huge cellaring potential. cloudybay.co.nz