Radburnd Merlot/Cabernet 2018

Radburnd Cellars, founded by legendary winemaker Kate Radburnd, is a boutique winery located in Hawke's Bay. Known for its focus on crafting small-batch, high-quality wines, the cellar showcases Kate’s decades of expertise and passion for winemaking. Their portfolio features meticulously produced Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon, reflecting the region’s diverse terroir and ideal growing conditions.

They work with vineyards that have the perfect characteristics for the wines they want to make, and with growers they know and trust and who prize sustainability and minimal intervention. Kate and her team are hands on in every step of the process - from picking grapes in the vineyard, to tasting and testing every barrel.

The result is a range of elegant, balanced wines which reflect the vintage variations which are a characteristic of cool climate wine making.

Batches of hand-harvested fruit were chilled overnight before processing the following day. Chilled bunches were hand sorted and de-stemmed, and whole berries were transferred to open fermenters with some foot stomping. Whole bunches were also incorporated in some of the Merlot fermenters. The berries were cold soaked before fermentation, with pumping over twice per day then pressed to barriques at the end of fermentation. The Merlot and Cabernet matured for 21 months in new and seasoned French oak barriques. Blended in December 2019 and bottled in January 2020, the final blend is approximately 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon