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First planted in 1999, Te Mata’s twenty-year pinot noir vision comes to fruition with the 1 July global release of Te Mata Estate Alma Pinot Noir.

This ambitious multi-decade project reflects Te Mata Estate’s dedication to the highest standards of New Zealand fine wine. These are the first new Te Mata Estate wines released this century from the premium producer of New Zealand reds and capture Te Mata’s exacting standards of excellence, quality and finesse.

This is pinot noir that speaks of its mature, low-cropped origins, a blend of four clones, grown on inland, elevated, river terraces, hand-harvested, with every step of production under the direct control of Te Mata Estate’s Philip Brodie.

Midnight-dark with a deep crimson edge, Alma ’18 is a triumph of aromatic wild strawberry, black cherry, currants, marzipan, sage and sandalwood. The palate’s ripe, sustained, structure reveals a parade of spice and brooding, soft, dark, berry fruits and rich savoury tannins – set to unfurl with time. Cherry, black plum, cinnamon and smoke, all glide across a palate which is wonderfully deep-set.

Finely-dressed for its debut, the premiere release of Alma ’18 is modern, majestic, and enchanting in its detail.

The introduction of Alma ’18 is accompanied by Estate Vineyards Pinot Noir ’18.

Alma Pinot Noir ’18 and Estate Vineyards Pinot Noir ’18 is strictly allocated across all markets and will be available in 750ml bottles. Alma Pinot Noir is priced at $59.90RRP and Estate Vineyards Pinot Noir ’18 at $29.90RRP.

THE BATTLE OF ALMA
Alma celebrates Dr James Thomson, a hero of the 1854 Battle of the Alma during the Crimean War and forefather to Te Mata Estate’s Buck family. Knowing the vanquished enemy soldiers had already contracted cholera, Dr Thomson volunteered to tend to their wounds, saving the lives of over four hundred, and sacrificing his own in the process. His act of selfless humanity remains worthy of the highest possible praise. It is commemorated by a monument in the Scottish Highlands near his home, and by the medal he was awarded for his valour. That medal appears on the label of Alma Pinot Noir.

When Te Mata Estate – where the first wines flowed in 1895 – unveiled several of it’s 2017 whites and 2018 reds I was looking for the signs of challenging vintages. the good news is that the 2018s look delicious young and the Coleraine ’17 is as classy as ever.’

COLERAINE ’17 – FIVE STARS

Since the debut 1982 vintage, Coleraine has stood out for its fragrance, complexity and subtlety.This is a full-coloured, mouth-filling red with notably concentrated, well ripened blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, braced by firm tannins, and impressive harmony.

Read the full review here…

‘The auction of a unique collection of Te Mata Coleraine not only made a stir within the wine media, it also made the record books.

The result, which saw the 32-vintage collection of Coleraine fetch $19,000, left Te Mata Estate’s sales and marketing manager Toby Buck smiling.

The news raced across the winemaking and wine media landscape with Fine & Rare Wines specialist Marcus Atkinson noting that the result had effectively made it two records in a row for Te Mata Estate. In 2016 a Coleraine vertical collection went for $6,500 under the hammer at an auction in Auckland. It equated to $195 a bottle and became the largest single wine collection and overall auction price for any New Zealand wine.

“Until now,” he said.

“At almost $600 a bottle this is the highest auction price achieved for any collection of New Zealand wine,” he said of the recent auction staged in Napier as a build-up to the Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction next month.

The result came as no surprise for many wine writers, including several from across the Tasman. Huon Hooke of Australia’s The Real Review described Coleraine as ‘a great wine from the very first vintage’. Andrew Graham of The Australian Wine Review said Coleraine possessed a reputation for unwavering consistency. ‘Please world, make every vertical like this.’

Earlier this month The Australian featured a profile of Te Mata Estate and described its Coleraine as ‘a beautifully elegant expression of Hawke’s Bay that has cemented its reputation as one of New Zealand’s finest wines’.

Coleraine connoisseurs and devotees have only a little over four months to wait for the next addition to the globally-lauded line.’

Read the full article at the NZ Herald here…

‘Some would say that Te Mata’s Coleraine was the first true iconic wine of New Zealand. The first vintage of Coleraine caused a stir when it came in 1982 but it wasn’t without a precedent. Te Mata Estate had already been making well-respected wines for many years before and the estate, whose first vintage was in 1896, is in fact the oldest winemaking property in New Zealand. It is partly due to Te Mata’s long history and experience that Coleraine was celebrated quite early on as one of New Zealand’s finest wines. But also because Coleraine hit the nail on the head in terms of combining grape variety with terroir and proved that Hawke’s Bay, and indeed New Zealand, was capable of making world class red blends.

Te Mata Estate has many different soil profiles and mesoclimates in their vineyards. Varying degrees of alluvial gravels, silts and sand make up the vineyard soils and parcels each have different exposures, slopes (or plains) and mesoclimates. This, in combination with the different grape varieties, is what the family believes gives them an advantage in making red blends. “The absolute strength of Bordeaux blends is in different varieties and different soils, and that’s where we started,” explains Toby Buck, the second generation of the family to run Te Mata Estate. “But it is also really about the people that put these wines together, who made them what they are.”

Read more at ‘Around the World in 80 Harvests’…

‘Coleraine is one of the few NZ wines that I have multiple bottles of in the cellar. A wine that is every bit New Zealand’s ‘First Growth’, with a history that dates all the way back to 1896 and a reputation for unwavering consistency.

Named after the original vineyard planted to the same proportions as Chateau Margaux, Coleraine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Before 1989 it was a single vineyard wine, after that a blend of grapes from across the Te Mata Estate vineyards.

For this vertical, the wines were all either purchased at auction (with some bottles topped up if necessary) or from the wine program cellars and checked before the tasting at Te Mata Estate. That attention to detail meant that there were no bad wines in this vertical. Just glory. Please world, make every vertical like this.

Notes are as written on the day and we went through the wines v. quickly so they’re pretty rough impressions. Still, there is no disguising the pleasure of so many of the wines here. Hawke’s Bay goes to Bordeaux indeed.

Personally, I prefer the moderate years, the best wines are so varietal yet they’re ripe and layered too. Sometimes large verticals are a chore and you find yourself stuck in a trough when winemaking fashions change. But this collection was punctuated with pleasurable wines so regularly that it was a joy.’

Coleraine ’16
95 Points

Less ripeness, more coiled power. Reminds of the composure of the ’14. Bound up in oak but the kicker is the acid feels natural. More elegance and a real perfect smoothness here. Really generous in its round appeal and seamless tannins. Very fine. One of the best.

Read the full article here… 

This month Air New Zealand showed two vertical collections of Te Mata Estate wines at exclusive events in Australia. The first was a twenty-five year vertical of Bullnose Syrah in Melbourne, the second a thirty-five year Coleraine vertical served at Rockpool in Sydney. Promoted as ‘one of the most historic tastings of two of New Zealand’s greatest wines’ this was a rare, and invite-only, chance to taste collections seldom seen on the international market.

A perrenial part of the Fine Wines of New Zealand, Bullnose and Coleraine have both been selected by a panel of judges since the programme began. A vertical of Coleraine was prevsiouly used to benchmark the inital judging of New Zealand’s finest wines.

Comments by Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh from The Wine Front on specific vintages have already been uploaded to the reviews and wine sections of this site. All new review material will be linked to here shortly.