For Prestige Wine, Remember The Name Arthur Edmund
If you’re looking for a prestige wine experience, the name Arthur Edmund should be on your radar, as it’s the name given to Mills Reef’s icon wine range. This range is comprised of two very special limited edition wines, a 2013 Cabernet Merlot blend, and a 2013 Syrah, grown in the acclaimed Gimblett Gravels wine growing district of Hawke’s Bay.
The name is a tribute by Mills Reef co-founders Paddy & Tim Preston respectively to their father and grandfather, and has been long associated with only the very best wines Mills Reef has to offer. You don’t tarnish your father’s good name with just any old drink. Chief Winemaker, Tim Preston, says “Arthur Edmund, my grandfather, was a pioneer and visionary, that same spirit is likewise echoed in these special wines, hence we felt it was a fitting tribute to name them in his honour, and to accompany the fine wines named in honour of his wife and my grandmother, Elspeth.”
The time is therefore right for wine lovers to acquire and experience these wines as they make their first ascent, or to further age in private cellars for future discovery and enjoyment.
Seven years on from vintage, the Cabernet and Syrah are now ready for enjoyment or savouring (why not both?). Tim says “ageing of wines is a series of rhythmic ‘awake and sleep’ cycles, and from our 30 years of experience, we’ve noted those cycles tend toward 8 yearly for Gimblett Gravels red wines, hence this first release is timed to coincide with their rise from slumber and ascent toward the first apogee predicted for 2021. The time is therefore right for wine lovers to acquire and experience these wines as they make their first ascent, or to further age in private cellars for future discovery and enjoyment.”
A stringent criteria was followed for the selection of what would become the Arthur Edmund collection. Only the oldest vines in the best rows and soils pruned to yield only low amounts of around three or four bunches of grapes per vine were chosen. After being left to the mercy of waiting for the perfect conditions, they were then hand picked and put through what could be described as “minimal-intervention winemaking”. No funny business, just pure winemaking with very little to get in the way of the wines expressing themselves to their fullest.
The 2013 Cabernet Merlot blend is a refined wine with a harmonious blend of two varieties, revealing lusciously intense blackberry fruit purity, layered with mocha, chocolate, and fine oak seasoning, seamlessly integrated on fine plush tannins, culminating with a delicious long spicy crescendo.
The 2013 Syrah is a symphony of blackcurrant, brambly black fruits, pepper spice, with velvety smooth tannins and deliciously intense fruit in perfect harmony, rising to a sustained liquorice finale.
And yes, they’ve both been doing the rounds collecting stellar five star reviews, placing them amongst NZ’s elite wines, so you don’t need to just take our word for it.
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