The Prison Block gets its name from a three-quarter-hectare section in our “Gimblett Stones” vineyard behind Roys Hill originally earmarked for the Hawke’s Bay Regional Correctional Facility. The Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon vines now planted there produce tiny berries with intense colour, concentrated/complex flavours, ripe tannins and balanced acidity; all the hallmarks necessary to produce a wine worthy of a single vineyard release.
Tasting notes:
The wine is rich and concentrated in the mouth yet retains the elegance, structure and restraint so characteristic of great Cabernet Sauvignon. Pure black fruit flavours, savoury oak, fine-grained tannins and succulent acidity combine to produce an exquisitely balanced, seamless, textural palate with an exceptionally long finish.
Review:
Rated Outstanding & 97 points Cameron Douglas MS
Powerful core of dark berries, baking spices, toasty barrel, bacon, tobacco, hay, bell pepper and coarse stony earthy complexities. Equally intense on the palate with flavours and textures that saturate the palate. Cassis and blackberry, bitter chocolate and dark plum, bramble and bouquet-garni, clove and vanilla, toasty barrel and cigar-box. As the wine opens up in glass an iron, lead and earthy quality adds to the complexity. This is a very youthful wine still, but with great promise, depth and complexity. A true reflection of vintage and high-quality fruit.