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Tahi is the Maori word for the number 1. Rachel’s ancestors are Ngai Tahu Maori. It represents the ideal of what we want to make in a wine. The wine that we put most effort into making.

Viticulture

The grapes for this wine come from selected parcels of vines grown on the plateau of Le Roubau in the Aspres region of the Roussillon. The Syrah grows on stony quartz, the Mourvedre on clay and the Grenache on limestone.

2006 had a wet winter with the first snow for 20 years. After April there was no more rain, resulting in a hot, dry ripening period with very low disease risk. The combination of plentiful soil-water supplies and good weather led to wines with great balance of acidity, tannin and fruit.

We practice Sustainable Viticulture, no chemical fertilizers are used. Grapes are sorted and hand-harvested into small picking cases.

Vinification

Blend: 50% Syrah, 30% Mourvedre, 20% Grenache noir

Alcohol content 13.5%, Residual Sugar 1.8g, pH 3.7

De-stemmed without crushing, each parcel was traditionally fermented for 2 weeks with a further week maceration before pressing. Aged for 12 months in French oak barrels where malo-lactic fermentation occurred naturally. Tahi was painstakingly blended from individually selected barrels over a period of several weeks.

Unfined but coarse-filtered before bottling in environmentally-friendly bottles and sealed with natural cork treated with microwave to reduce the risk of TCA.

TAHI

Tasting Notes

Rich and complex nose of dark berries, charred oak and spices. In the mouth the wine has a great combination of rich fruit, spicy oak and fine tannins. It is long and satisfying.