Cameron Douglas: Ha Ha Merlot 2023, Hawkes Bay

Ha Ha Merlot 2023, Hawkes Bay. RRP $19.00  

Ha Ha means – to ‘Catch your breath’ in te reo Māori  

A palate of plums and blackberry fruit scents, there’s a light violet touch and generous fruity core. Fine tannins with medium+ acid line to frame the flavours of plums and red berry fruits. Balanced and refreshing with decent length and lots of style. Best drinking from 2025 through 2028.  

 

The Food:   

Merlot is one of those wines that bridges the earthy umami flavours of winter fare almost seamlessly every time. One such dish a chicken ballotine stuffed with spinach, lentils and prunes. You can substitute out the prunes for dates, raisins or even dried apricot.  

The natural sweetness of the fruit with the meat is what Merlot likes. Spinach and red wine tannins like each other a lot, and lentils provide the earthy theme to the dish. The lentils can be served on the side if stuffing them into a rolled-up chicken breast or leg doesn’t fit your idea of using lentils in that way.  

 

The Season:   

2023 was challenging to a greater or lesser degree through Aotearoa NZ. The north island was challenged by the wind and rain. Hawkes Bay where this wine was grown got smashed by cyclone Gabrielle. Producers of wine were quick to react and harvest only the best fruit to make wine. The South Island not so much at all. The bottom line is wine from the 2023 vintage on the most part are wines to drink and enjoy now. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at Me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right now, though, it is time to talk wine, and
our wine expert Cameron Douglas is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning Cameron, Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Okay, so are you the kind of person who sort
of changes wine with the season, Like we're getting into winter,
so you're heading into to a Merlo or red or
actually do you just drink drinks at any time of
the year.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Absolutely change my drinking choices when the cuisine that we
have available to us changes as well. And Merlo is
such a great option because it's one of those catch
all wines that can go with everything from chicken soup
to chicken balladine, to a piece of steak or even
a vegetarian lasagna. You know, it's a wine that just

(00:54):
weaves its fruit pleasures in amongst all the textures of
food so seamlessly. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell us about the haha Merlo twenty twenty three from
Hawks Bay.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
The Merlow, by the way, haha In today, Omori means
catch your breath, So if you're running to the liquor
store today just to find a bottle of wine, the
haha labels really does stick out quite easily on the
shop shelves for you. But it's a wine that's grown
and vinified in Hawks Bay and it's one of those

(01:27):
expressions being sub twenty dollars, has text all the boxes
in terms of fruit, you know, all that plumminess and
the plushness of texture with softer tannins and more medium
style acidity. So it has the ability to tease the
palette with texture and flavor and sort of buddy up

(01:48):
quite nicely or cuddle up nicely to food. So it's
a very well made wine and with it gives you
more bang for your buck.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
And twenty twenty three is twenty twenty five the yet
a drink it.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
I you know what I would say, So you know
it's it's on the shelves now and it's ready to go,
and it's done all its aging in bottle in the
cellar for the Haha Wine Company, so it's really grab
unscrew that screw cap and off you go.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Twenty twenty three was a pretty challenging year, you know
in the North Island was challenged with a lot of
wind and rain. Of course, being in the Hawk's Bay,
I'm sure that a lot of the wine makers had
very difficult times. How is that all recovering?

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well, you're quite right. Hawks Bay did get a lot
more rain and wind and weather impacts like Dismond did
throughout that growing season. Are they recovering.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Vines have this remarkable ability to have a recovery time,
meaning that the following year they're relaxing back into a
typical season. And then twenty twenty five has come along
and delivered us something special. There are pockets of land
and Hawk's Bay that haven't recovered. Some of the other
crops that are grown down there, like apple orchards, some

(03:09):
of them will never come back again. But vineyards have
a wonderful ability or vines have a wonderful ability to
recover if you give them the chance and you look
after the soil, which is what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, Cameron. So if we were going to have the
perfect meal to enjoy our haha, merlow Worth, what would
you recommend?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, like I said at the beginning, it can go
with everything from soup to meat to vegetarian dishes. But
what I've suggesting that you think about which a lot
of households have, and that is chicken. And if you
grab a chicken breast a leg and ballatine that meaning
that you're pulling the bone out and you're putting something
inside and rolling it up. I'm suggesting spinach or that sorry,

(03:53):
that chicken leg ballatined with spinach, lentils and prunes, and
you roll that up, tied up if you like, and
then bake it in the oven. If you're not a
big fan of lentils, put them on the side instead.
If you're not a big fan of prunes, substituted out
with dates or raisins or even dried apricots. And what
that does is it gives you your head of protein

(04:14):
from the chicken, but a lot of fruity undertones and
earthy undertones that work remarkably well with a wine like
the Haha Merlow.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
That sounds delicious. Cameron. You a bit of a chef,
are you?

Speaker 3 (04:26):
I used to be actually once upon a time, first
career in the kitchen.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, okay, that'll makes sense then, because I was going
this is sounding very sophisticated.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
This meal.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I love it. Thank you so much, Cameron. Nice to
talk to you.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks. He'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio