Martello Rock 2020
This delicious, medium-bodied blend of Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot recalls concentrated summer berries and earthy spices encased in silky tannins.
Tastings at Brick Bay
Did you know that we do daily wine tastings in The Row at Brick Bay? And there's no need to book. Just stop by during your visit and we’ll take you through our range of celebrated estate-grown wines.
Prices start from $10 per person and if you want to take a bottle home, one tasting fee is waived for each bottle purchased.
Tasting Notes:
An unusual blend of Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, deep crimson in colour with a vibrant edge. Aromas of dark berries, charcuterie, floral perfumes and smoky savoury notes. This seductive medium-bodied wine offers a palate of vibrant blackberries and raspberries, alongside the dusky warmth of leather and earthy spices, with a saline streak encased in layered silky tannins.
Expert Reviews:
Cameron Douglas MW: 94pt
Martello Rock has always been an immediately approachable style with core ripe red berry and plum fruit scents, baking spices of barrel, violets and chocolate with a baked clay earthy quality. This example reflects those ideas along with aromas of boysenberry, plum and five spice. Taut, youthful and complex with salivating tannins and acid line, a core of red fruit flavours and baking spices of oak, a touch of smoke and palate fruit sweetness. Delicious, fresh, youthful and ready, this wine will also cellar well through 2025 offering excellent drinking from then through mid-2035.
Bob Campbell MW: 94pt
Vibrant and intense blended red with cassis, cherry/berry, blackberry and spicy oak flavours. Firmly structured wine with good cellaring potential, A blend of malbec, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot.
Aging Potential:
Totally approachable now, but in stable cellaring conditions, will continue to evolve and develop further complexity over the next 5-8 years.
In the Vineyard:
The 2020 vintage was operationally challenging for many vineyards, working within the lockdown, although having an onsite team ‘bubble’ meant the harvest at Brick Bay could in fact proceed smoothly. Following an excellent 2019 vintage, 2020 saw an early start to the ripening season with uniform budburst, followed by an early veraison. We had to net in mid-January to protect the fruit from the ravenous birds who swoop in at the first sign of colour. Our vineyard team did their usual meticulous job of creating an open vine canopy by removing excess foliage by hand to allow air movement to dry the fruit and allow sunlight penetration. A marked increase of organic matter in the soil from our cover crops has promoted healthier vines which can better withstand disease. Unprecedented drought conditions here in the north, produced smallish berries in most varieties, giving us great concentration of flavour, and we had the luxury of simply waiting for the fruit to reach the desired level of ripeness without any disease pressure causing us to call an early harvest. We hand-picked the fruit in pristine condition, in what many believe may be the vintage of the decade!
In the Winery:
In the winery, each of the 4 varieties was destemmed and crushed separately into small open-top fermenters. A selected yeast instigated fermentation, with the rising ‘cap’ of skins initially hand-plunged four times daily. As alcoholic fermentation proceeded, the plunging regime was decreased to avoid over-extraction. After a period of post-fermentation maceration to add structure and balance, the wine was racked, the skins gently pressed, settled, then aged in new, 1 and 2 year old French oak barriques. Different coopers and forest origins were utilized to optimize the potential of each grape varietal. After 12 months, selected barriques were blended together. The wine was then bottled without fining and bottle-aged before release.
