The Patriarch is Babich?s flagship red wine, grown on their Gimblett Gravels ?Irongate? vineyard in Hawke?s Bay. This blend contains Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec. The nose is darkly perfumed and warm with nutmeg and cedar notes. The palate is fleshy and full with dark plums and sweet tarry notes. Tannins bind red floral aromatics to the palate and stretch the flavours through onto the lingering finish.

The grapes for this generous wine were exclusively sourced from the stony soils of our prestigious Gimblett Gravels vineyard in Hawkes Bay, on low yielding vines. A rich full bodied wine, this traditional blend exudes intense blackcurrant, blackberry and plum flavours, layered with caramel and spicy cedary oak.  Ageing in quality oak has conferred a velvety smooth texture.

In exceptional vintages we occasionally find special pockets of grapes destined for the Basket Press. The resultant wine is the pinnacle of our wine making. Intense purple, red rimmed with a palate of multi -layered fruit, a heady mix of leather, tar, mint cassis and plum held together with fine grained tannins and spicy oak.

Comes in wooden gift box.

58% Cabernet Sauvignon,  29% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc

Savoury and spicy, good complexity, with ripe blackcurrant and plum flavours. Good tannin support.

Classical Hawke's Bay take on Bordeaux using 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 21% Merlot, 7% Melbec

A complex aroma of berry fruits, spice, cassis, cedar and cigarbox notes, complemented by fine oak.

Sweet rounded berry-fruit flavours of blackberry and wild brambles, mocha, spice, savoury olive notes and fine oak tannin. This wine shows a complex bouquet, silken texture and firm structure. 

Elspeth represents their top tier of wines produced from their own vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay. The fruit is hand-picked and only under the Elspeth label when fruit is of exceptional quality. Their winemaking team shares the philosophy of a hands-on, no expense spared approach to produce these fine award-winning wines. The range is limited to Chardonnay, Syrah and Bordeaux style reds. The Elspeth tier is named in honour and memory of their winemaker Grandmother, Elspeth Preston.

source - Mills Reef

This distinguished Cabernet Merlot is made from ultra-premium grapes (73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc) grown on low-yielding vines in the Mere Road Vineyard, situated in the celebrated stony soils of the Gimblett Gravels district in Hawkes Bay. Medium to full bodied, it bursts with notes of black fruits, plum, chocolate, and liquorice intertwined with beautifully refined tannins, yielding a distinguished silky smooth wine.

Merlot is the most planted red grape in Hawke's Bay and it's blended here with 15% Cabernet Franc, which adds the deep crimson colour and impressive backbone and structure to this wine. Fermentation was all in stainless steel tanks to retain fruit forward approachability with maturation for 17 months in French oak barriques, which adds smoothness and a velvety texture to this wine. It's dry and tastes of ripe dark fruit. 

Craggy Range Merlot is one of our top selling Hawke's Bay reds and one sip will leave you seeing why. 

This red is predominantly a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend, with smaller proportions Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to add further complexity and interest. Cherry/plum flavours and the suppleness of Merlot combine with the blackberry/blackcurrant flavours, structure, and freshness of Cabernet Sauvignon to produce a serious yet eminently drinkable wine. 

Each individual vineyard parcel was harvested separately and gently de-stemmed prior to fermentation. Gentle daily pumping over of the skins during fermentation helped extract a soft, complex structure. Extended maceration on skins following fermentation helped to further integrate and soften the tannins. Following aging in stainless steel tanks, and a short time in seasoned French oak, the individual blocks were blended to create the ideal wine. The Wine: