TAHI

Tahi is the Maori word for One or First. Rachel is descended from the Maori tribe of Ngai Tahu.

Our top wine, made in limited quantities from the best barrels of the best parcels of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre, is a Cotes du Roussillon of depth, concentration, complexity and pure drinking pleasure. Aged in French oak barriques it is best drunk between 1-10 years after bottling.

Tahi has been rated 93/100 by Jamie Goode, the Glenfiddich Wine Writerof the Year 2007. Who describes it like this:

"It’s a big old wine, made with a fair dollop of new oak, but there’s more than enough fruit to deal with it. Tight, dark, concentrated and quite tannic, this could do with a few years to become more approachable and is potentially very long-lived. Ripe dark fruits dominate, with a subtly roasted coffee oak edge and a bit of plummy bitterness on the finish. There’s a lot going for this wine .... I’d be fascinated to see how this wine will taste in a decade: I reckon it will be pretty serious."

Recommended in Ecce Vino "Ce vin est superbe, puissant, long et juteux, avec des tannins fermes mais bien intégrés dans une matière fruitée parfaitement équilibrée, car dotée d'une très belle fraîcheur. Ce vin, délicieux maintenant, peut aussi se garder quelques années. Vaut largement son prix. (David Cobbold)" 

Awarded 2 stars in the Guide Hachette 2009.

Recommended Food Matches

A wine for special occasions. 

Viticulture

The best rows of vines within the best parcels of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre are selected for this wine. We carry out shoot thinning and bunch removal by hand to increase sunlight exposure to the bunches and keep the grapes healthy. 

During harvesting our pickers reject all but the best bunches.

Winemaking

Each parcel is vinified and aged separately.

Grapes are de-stemmed without crushing, chilled and fermented in open top concrete tanks. Careful extraction of tannins is performed by manual punch-down, pumping over and the occasional remontage. The wine is left on the skins after fermentation and tasted daily to judge the perfect pressing time.

This wine is only made from the free-run fraction. It is transferred to a careful selection of new and used French oak barriques where it undergoes spontaneous malolactic fermentation. It is then left on its lees in barrel until blending. The wine is bottled without fining or filtration to preserve the full compliment of flavours and aromas. This results in a sediment forming in the bottle over time.