Esk Valley Artisanal Malbec Cabernet Franc Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon

It’s a place. It’s a winery. It used to be called Glenvale (not to be confused with Gloriavale!) but we now know ’em as Esk Valley.

Built in 1933 by an Englishman (Robert Bird) who produced fortified wine from the 30s through to the 70s until the Esk name was created for a premium range of table wines. These days owned under the umbrella of the highly successful Villa Maria brand, although they do operate as an independent winery with their own winemaking team and vineyards including winemaking legend Gordon Russell.

The Esk Valley Artisinal range is a new fine wine range that’s been given a bit of what they like to call “the Gordon Russell treatment”. That means letting one of NZ’s true greats in winemaking roll up his sleeves and craft seriously good value wines true to variety and style. In this case we’re talking about a Malbec dominated, Bordeaux style red using fruit from the world famous Gimblett Gravels.

It’s rich, jammy, plummy Malbec blended with soft, plush, fruity Merlot and Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon for those red fruit and dried herb flavours.

Scoring 4 1/2 Stars with NZ critic Michael Cooper, who said “Bargain-priced, the characterful, full-bodied 2021 vintage (4.5*) was grown in the Gimblett Gravels. Deeply coloured, with fresh, spicy aromas, it is weighty, with concentrated blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, vibrant and very youthful. Well worth cellaring, it should be at its best 2025+.”