If I had to choose between white wine and red I would always go for white, but not always white whine can be chosen. Villa Maria is one of New Zealand's leading wine makers. Recently I've came across its Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon produced of grapes from Hawke's Bay vineyards. Before tasting the wine my expectations were quite… low as good staff can't come from New World.
History
As you may expect there isn't much history behind the name. No eve a hundred years of tradition and development in wine making. Villa Maria
Estate was founded in 1961 by its owner George Fistonich. In just over 40 years has been New Zealand's leading wine award winner. Villa Maria owns vineyards and sources grapes from contract growers from three of New Zealand's leading grape growing regions: Marlborough, Hawke's Bay (this is my tasting bottle comes from) and Gisborne. They owns to state-of-art wineries. The largest is in the new Auckland Winery and other Vineyard Park which was opened in 2005.
Villa Maria has five distinct ranges: • Single Vineyard - vines created from vineyards of exceptional quality; • Reserve - vines from the best vineyards in New Zealand; • Cellar Selection - elegant food friendly wines; • Private Bin - a popular selection of varietals wines; • Vintage selection - limited selections of best selling vines.
Bottle
The bottle is very simple and traditionally looking, which I do like. At first quick look it's very similar to french red vine bottles. The colour of the glass is light green the only difference to French tradition is the luck of … cork. Well, yes! There is no cork at all, no aluminium foil! New World wine comes with new technology and economical approach. The bottle has a screwcap, easy to open and 70% more efficient than traditional (read: French) corks. I'm a great fan of screw-top bottles idea as it helps to keep quality much better and saves millions of tons of corks each year.
There are two dominant colours: cream and burgundy. The screw- top is in burgundy with golden letters and a sticker/seal in black. The colour of the label is cream with black and golden letters and Villa Maria crest. Overall look is good, a bottle imitating French red wine as if asking to compare to Claret.
Wine
After leaving bottle opened for about 20 minutes in room temperature (its called wine breathing) comes to smell taste. First impression is very nice: a smell of dried plums, reach and intensive. One more sniff, and… yes plums, and some … raspberries or even cherries… yes cherries. The smell is really lovely, inviting to taste the 'imitation' of French wine.
What you pour into your gals in nice deep red/black colour. It's very dark red wine, non transparent, almost black. I'm feeling excited! Ready to taste.
First sip… is confirming what you nose says: lovely taste of plums, or even dried plums and delicate taste of raspberries and … cherries… rather dark cherries with obvious hint of oak. Nice and smooth, no tartness, no bad after taste. Is it excellent 'imitation' of a good French wine? No, it's a very noble New Zealand Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon.
Alcohol volume: 13%.
Best drinking time: until 2007.
The wine would perfectly accompany some lame and pork dishes, grilled meats, stews or even strong cheeses. I wouldn't recommend it with beef but it's really up to personal taste. The wine would be great for evening reception with some meaty canapés.
Price
The wine isn't widely known it the UK, but you can gat it from Oddbins or Waitrose for app. £8 - £9 per bottle.
Recommendation
Churchill, would you recommend the wine? Ooo, yes! Well, it really is wine worth recommending to everyone who likes good quality red wine and doesn't mind paying almost £10 per bottle. Villa Maria Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon is much better than some French wines. The time when people said 'only French wine is good' has well gone. Now is good time to discover some nice wines from New World which can deliver quality for reasonable price.
Thank you for reading and good luck.
Pictures
bottle
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