One of the things I'm enjoying most about finding a wine I want to review for Wine of the Week is trying the wine over several days and letting the flavours develop and evolve. And this week's 'Wine of the Week', the Brookfields Reserve Vintage Cabernet Merlot 2000 is evolving beautifully into one of the most satisfying Bordeaux-style red wines I've tasted all year. The flavour profiles change in the glass, they change in the bottle and they change with food.

Affectionately referred to by many as 'Brookfields Gold Label', this Hawkes Bay wine is fully deserving of it classy livery. Inside the bottle is a blend of 85% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot and 5% malbec that matured in new French oak for 18 months. So it has been in the bottle for a good few months now.

When I first tried the wine it had the most amazing aroma of very classy French oak on a layer of plum and blackberry. It was creamy textured in the mouth with firm tannins, spice, cedar and earthy black Malbec fruit appearing on the mouth filling finish. It's youthful with the lift of acidity in the bright cedary fruit.

The next evening it's a big, dark, dense, leathery, brooding wine with aromas that are all leather and spice. There's a lovely lifted vinosity in the mouth with a creamy texture, spicy oak and lingering black fruits. A snack of vintage aged cheddar really enhanced the cinnamon spice over the berries with the creamy oak lingering with the ripe fruit tannins in the background.

And lastly tonight as I finish this review there's tobacco and cedar spice on the nose while the dense meaty and dark blackberry fruits of the malbec are like a plush red velvet cushion with layers of creamy spicy oak and concentrated plum and blackcurrant upon it.

This Brookfields Reserve Vintage Cabernet Merlot 2000 is simply an outstanding wine that is an excellent cellaring prospect as well as being most enjoyable in its youth.

Glengarry's are Brookfields distributors and they are currently selling the wine for NZ$54.95 a bottle.

As for the food we tried it with a lamb chop casserole and also with t-bone steaks served with creamed mushrooms. Both great accompaniments.

Peter Robertson, the crafter of this awesome wine, recommends "Mutton Paulliac". Take a hindquarter of lamb. Make about a dozen incisions all over with the tip of a carving knife. Slide a sliver of garlic into each incision. Season the lamb with salt and pepper, smear with oil and coat with a mixture of breadcrumbs and parsley. Cook slowly and serve with roasted vegetables. A jus is not necessary. Sounds delishimo.

Check out the Brookfields website for more information about this Hawkes Bay winery.

© Sue Courtney