After three favourable vintages from 2019-21, 2022 was a challenging season for grape growing in Hawke’s Bay, with unsettled weather and plenty of rain. However, Te Mata Estate – founded in 1892 and currently celebrating 50 years of ownership by the Buck and Morris families – emphasises that summer was unusually warm, leading to an early harvest. To judge from Te Mata’s recently released top-end wines from 2022, cabernet sauvignon came through that tricky season especially well.
Te Mata Elston Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2022
★★★★★
Te Mata’s top chardonnay is hand-harvested from mature vines on the hills above the winery at Havelock North and fermented and matured in French oak barriques (partly new). Highly fragrant, mouthfilling and savoury, this is a refined, vigorous wine with deep, ripe stonefruit flavours, gently seasoned with toasty oak, and a rich, finely poised finish. Best drinking 2026+. (13.5% alc/vol) $50
Te Mata Coleraine 2022
★★★★★
Breed, rather than brute power, is the hallmark of Coleraine, which since 1982 has carved out an illustrious reputation. Cabernet sauvignon is the predominant variety, blended with merlot and cabernet franc. Grown on warm, north-facing sites in the Havelock North hills, it is aged for up to 20 months in French oak barriques, mostly new. A notably graceful red, it is dark, fragrant and weighty, with concentrated, ripe blackcurrant, plum, spice and nut flavours, complex, savoury and seamless. Best drinking 2029+. (13.5% alc/vol) $165
Te Mata Alma Pinot Noir 2022
★★★★★
Pinot noir is a variety not often linked to Hawke’s Bay, but it has been cultivated in the region since the 19th century. Estate-grown in the relatively cool Dartmoor Valley, the 2022 Alma is one of Te Mata’s best reds of the year. Deeply coloured, it is mouthfilling and sweet-fruited, with rich cherry, plum and spice flavours and fine, supple tannins. A strongly varietal wine, savoury and complex, it’s already delicious. (13% alc/vol) $70
Wine of the week
Te Mata Awatea Hawke’s Bay Cabernets/Merlot 2022
★★★★★
Positioned below its Coleraine stablemate in Te Mata’s hierarchy of claret-style reds, Awatea is more seductive in its youth, tasting more of ripe, sweet fruit. This distinctive, stylish wine offers great value. Deeply coloured, it is mouthfilling, with rich plum and blackcurrant flavours, seasoned with nutty oak, good tannin backbone, and a long, finely structured, very harmonious finish. Best drinking 2026+. (13.5% alc/vol) $45
