The Zaria Merlot & Cabernet Franc is a 85/15 blend.
Lifted violets, damson plum and cocoa saturate the nose along with myriad spices including cinnamon, cardamon and coriander seeds. Very generous aromatically rewarding repeated engagement. The palate is rich and full, with a presence of flavour throughout. Black Doris plums and dark cherries are in abundance as well as dark chocolate and iron mineral qualities.

This wine is a delicious example of what the Hawke’s Bays Bridge Pa Triangle can offer in excellent vintages. We believe this wine will age gracefully through to 2030 and beyond if cellared carefully.

The Zaria story is, at its heart, a tale of true love.
It began in 2004, when Kiwi winemaker Bryce Edmonds met a Czech beauty named Alena. The pair embarked on a cross-the-globe relationship that took them to many of the world’s great wine regions — New Zealand, Austria, Spain, and France among them — and after seven years, Bryce set out to craft a gift worthy of the woman of his dreams.

The gift struck a chord. A few weeks later, when Bryce proposed at Napier’s acclaimed Pacifica Restaurant, Alena said yes. They married at the spectacular Valtice Castle in the Czech Republic, honeymooned amongst the wineries of Portugal, and now live on Bryce’s family vineyard in Hawke’s Bay, where they raise their daughters Jasmin and Natalie.

After the success of his first vintage, Bryce decided to share his brand with the wider world — and under his stewardship, Zaria wines have become synonymous with grace, elegance, and focus. Using fruit lovingly grown on Lesley’s Vineyard (named after his late mother), Bryce practices minimal intervention to coax nuance and balance out of the land, ultimately bringing to life creations worthy of the goddess they honour and the woman they’re an ode to.