Big Start to the New Year

One notable big bottle to start the year and to start the blog posts for 2013.  We’d been saving a magnum of 2000 Redmetal ‘Basket Press’ Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet Franc for a special occasion, and this was it. I was gifted the wine about a decade ago, and it signalled the new millennium too.  And we had Jubes and family and the WRXers as company, and they like their red wines.

Still dark ruby-garnet colour, I was a little perturbed by the bouquet.  Greenish stemmy and funky notes, no meat or horse thankfully, but not what was expected.  Although 2000 wasn’t a super-ripe and hot year in The Bay, the Bordeaux-styled reds haven’t appeared unripe, with the likes of Te Mata Estate saying that 2000 was a classic for them, with elegance being their preferred style, the 2000 ‘Coleaine’ better than the monumental 1998. 

Back to the Redmetal, still vigorous and juicy on palate, with dark berry and herby fruits, some black earth and secondary flavours, all backed by grunty extract and robust tannins and a flash of acidity.  Sinewy in a big way, and still with another decade of life ahead of it.  I don’t think it’ll evolve into finesse and layers, but it’ll drink well.  The bottle was drained, in addition to a number of others in the course of the night, and SWMBO, who can be critical of brett, green and undrinkability was pretty happy with it.  The WRXers beamed smiles as the supped up.