Te Mata Estate Coleraine 2023

98 POINTS

Sam Kim - Wine Orbit

Stunning bouquet ... engaging and captivating. The palate exhibits immense concentration and presence, superbly enhanced by silky texture and layers of chalky tannins. The acidity is perfectly pitched and provides freshness to this long-living wine. A wine of meticulous precision and undeniable sophistication.

98 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Wine Advocate

The 2023 Coleraine comprises 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. This cuvée is not made to a recipe, rather as a selection of the best from each vintage. In 2023, due to the weather induced by Cyclone Gabrielle, which landed in early February (the second or third), the strongest performer was the Cabernet Sauvignon due to bunch architecture, small berries, thick skins and, in this case, the low-vigor rootstocks and the chicory in between the rows. Te Mata invests heavily into research and development in the vineyards, which really assists in a vintage like 2023, which imposes challenges. The elevation in all aspects of this wine from the already tremendously impressive Awatea is significant. Here, the tannins have a finer grain, the fruit is more persistent and the package is far more integrated and seamless. With raspberry, iodine, crushed shells, nori, pressed flowers, new lead pencil, tobacco, bramble and cassis, it is magnificent. Raw cocoa and the gentle and subtle creep of game/gristle/blood and sweet marrow indicate its direction later in life. I love this wine. I think I write that every time I taste it. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc. This was bottled last week, so, it comes to me in kind of a more frisky form. 70% new oak, and they’ve worked with a French cooper to create a Coleraine barrel, which is all part of the attention to detail that’s a hallmark of this estate, although most of the effort goes into vineyard management, which is as it should be. I come to this wine as someone who’s tasted every vintage of Coleraine ever made, and while that could be considered boastful (well, that’s me!), it’s intended to provide context. The acid line in this wine puts me in mind of the 2021, which was a very tight and firm Coleraine, and while it does not carry the same intensity of fruit, it’s maybe not dissimilar in character. Release date is March 2025. Blackcurrant, essence of Cabernet thing here, dried herbs (thyme) and nori, tobacco, pencil, liquorice/aniseed. Medium-bodied, bright acid line, ripe tomato, black and red fruit, lots of pulverized rock stuff to tannin, with a very long finish. Wonderful perfume, crisp with kind of a porcini mushroom umami-laced character about it, more of a cool and bony feel, but a great wine all the same. I’m spending a lot of time thinking about this wine, about where it will go, and where it sits in the pantheon of Te Mata Coleraine, and the upshot it is ‘up’. It’s either 95+ or 96 points.