Te Mata Estate Coleraine 2017

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Peter Cowley from TeMata Estate in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, dropped into Wine Decoded HQ to shoot the breeze last week.

Turns out he knows a thing or two about making Filthy Good Vino.

A few years ago Peter was the very first winemaker we interviewed at Wine Decoded HQ. We talked Hawkes Bay, Possums, Art Decco and mostly, vino, taking a look at 8 of his wines.

Let’s just say this, they have personality!

Just recently, Phil Brodie took over as Chief Winemaker after working with Peter for 28 years!

By all accounts ie what’s in the glass it’s been a very smooth transition.

The name Coleraine which is today synonymous with outstanding wine year upon year, hails from the township in northern Ireland of the same name, where the late grandfather of Te Mata’s John Buck was born. It was John and his wife Wendy’s wish that this name be maintained through the family home and build a legacy through their wine.

A single vineyard wine until 1989, Coleraine is an assemblage of the finest wines produced from distinct plots within Te Mata Estate’s oldest Havelock Hills vineyards first planted in 1892.

Always a cabernet sauvignon dominant wine, often with merlot and cabernet franc, Coleraine is refined and classical. Very powerful in its youth, Coleraine develops over a substantial time frame and is renowned for its fragrance of ‘old roses’, with elegance and precision contained within a fine, dry, tannin structure.
With a pedigree of over 30 years production, Coleraine collectors loved learning that a thirty-two vintage vertical recently sold for $19,000. At almost $600 a bottle, this is the highest auction price achieved for any collection of New Zealand wine.

Where in the World is TeMata?

TeMata is in Hawke’s Bay on the East Coast of the bottom half of the North Island.