{"id":15612,"date":"2026-09-14T06:21:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=15612"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:21:59","slug":"villa-maria-twyford-gravels-vineyard-merlot-2004-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=15612","title":{"rendered":"Villa Maria \u2018Twyford Gravels Vineyard\u2019 Merlot 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new tasting of an old favourite. I have shares in a company that owns vineyards &#8211; Terra Vitae &#8211; and the Twyford Gravels vineyard in the middle of the Gimblett Gravels is one of them. As such I have bought numerous bottles that feature grapes from the vineyards within the company portfolio over the years. I last tasted this wine a couple of years ago, and gave that bottle a 93\/100 score then.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>From Villa Maria\u2019s excellent \u2018Single Vineyard\u2019 range \u2013 the 2004 vintage was considered a cooler year in Hawke\u2019s Bay. A dense, inky burgundy colour in the glass. Richly perfumed with cherry, plum, black pepper, star anise, liquorice, candied orange peel and a medicinal green-eucalypt note. Very plush and generous into the palate, with concentrated power and a velvet texture. Quite decadent and voluptuous. Fine, lengthy tannins and a few savoury notes of black olive, leather and petrichor balance that ripe fruit. There is still enough juicy acidity to carry the palate, and touches of smoky oak add even more depth. The finish is dry and long \u2013 drinking at its peak after 22 years.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you served me this blind and then told me it was a top Merlot-based Bordeaux, I would easily believe you. Sensational. Probably the best NZ Merlot I\u2019ve ever tasted &#8211; far eclipses the bottle I opened two years ago. <b>97pts<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new tasting of an old favourite. I have shares in a company that owns vineyards &#8211; Terra Vitae &#8211; and the Twyford Gravels vineyard in the middle of the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wine-review-by-winefolio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Villa Maria \u2018Twyford Gravels Vineyard\u2019 Merlot 2004 - WineFolio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=15612\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Villa Maria \u2018Twyford Gravels Vineyard\u2019 Merlot 2004 - WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new tasting of an old favourite. 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