2023 Te Mata Coleraine Cabernet Merlot

Te Mata Coleraine is simply the most iconic and collectable wine in all of New Zealand.

Sourced from the oldest, most established vineyard blocks across the Havelock Hills, Coleraine is always a wine of structure, depth, and longevity, designed to evolve over decades. The 2023 vintage comes off the back of a cooler season, bringing incredible clarity to the fruit and a more refined, classical frame.

Cabernet Sauvignon leads the way, delivering cassis, graphite, and fine tannin, while Merlot and Cabernet Franc add plushness, spice, and floral lift. It’s precise and layered, with a balance between dark fruit intensity and an elegant, savoury backbone. There’s freshness too - an energy that keeps everything in check and hints at the decades of potential ahead. Oak is present but seamlessly woven in, supporting rather than dominating.

With more than 40 remarkable releases under its belt, Coleraine is a wine with a tremendous pedigree. A rich history and an unswerving pursuit of world-class quality is the backdrop to this stunning dry red - priced extremely fairly when compared to its international peers.

Grab yours while you can and add this modern icon to your collection.

 98 points
"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."
- Erin Larkin (The Wine Advocate)

98 points
"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."
- Sam Kim (Wine Orbit)

95+ points
"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." - Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)