Craggy Range Sophia 2024

95 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

From the Gimblett Gravels sub-region in Hawkes Bay, Merlot (79%) is always dominant in this wine, supported by Cabernet Franc (14%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (7%). Each block of fruit used was matured separately in French oak before blending took place and the final wine then spent a further six months in oak. Another in the brilliant assembly of Craggy Range wines from the 2024 vintage, for me, the best collection they have ever released. Deep blood red with a dark crimson edge, the nose exhibits aromas of plums, tobacco leaves, chocolate, cedar, warm earth, mushrooms, coffee grinds, aniseed, leather, animal skins and blackberries. There is savouriness here, but everything is kept well in check. A wine of power and focus with great intensity and direction, there is a line of bright acidity running the full journey through to the sleek tannins on a lingering and persistent finish. Enjoy over the next twenty years.

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

79% Merlot 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon. From a top vintage in Hawkes Bay. Plum, black fruit, pencil, purple flowers, aromatic and spicy, a bit of roast red capsicum. Medium to full-bodied, plump and flavoursome but corralled by a mesh of pencilly and gavelly tannin, pulls into some red fruit on the palate, and finishes with excellent length, a savoury tobacco flourish to close. So impressive. Could be 96 points really.

95 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

I tell you what, these 2024 Gimblett Gravel wines are pretty damn impressive. Deeply coloured with a dark crimson edge, this exceptional blend (79/14/7% merlot/cabernet franc/cabernet sauvignon) opens with complex aromas of doris plum, blackberry, black cherry, tobacco leaf and cedar. The plush, expansive mid-palate delivers rich chocolate, warm earth and pastis tones, enlivened by bright acidity. With its bed of compact, powdered-gravel tannins, the wine exhibits impressive power and architectural focus. The velvety, sustained finish and intrinsic structural elements promise an extended trajectory in the cellar over the next 20 years.

94 POINTS

Tom Kline - Winepilot

A 79% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon blend anchored by Merlot from Block 24 (clone 481), hand-harvested after a cool, delayed budbreak and bunch- and berry-sorted before whole berries went into closed-top French oak cuves for 21-23 day ferments. Each block was matured separately in French oak before the final blend returned to oak for a further six months. A little shy initially, though unfurling nicely with milk chocolate, mulberry, plum and pencil shavings before some time in the glass reveals more prominent cedar, sweet tilled earth, graphite and spent coffee grinds. The graphite brings a mineral feel through the perfume bringing a lovely sense of shape. In the mouth it’s intense and precise – plum, cedar, chocolate, espresso, graphite again, a subtly minty edge. Very classy and fine but with a firm assertion of grainy tannins – not overt – but framing and elongating the wine to a long finish. I like this for its power that’s funnelled through a linear coil to great length. A strong release.