Trophy for Best Cabernet Blend and Gold Medal, 2005 Air New Zealand Wine Awards
Gold Medal, 2006 New Zealand Wine Society Royal Easter Show

Five Stars Cuisine Magazine:  "Dark, fragrant, very fleshy Hawke’s Bay red with genuinely sweet, ripe-fruit characters, a spicy Malbec influence and complex, highly concentrated flavours. Still very young, but firmly structured and should mature well."

"Bright red-ruby color. Bitter cherry, blackcurrant, pepper and spicy oak on the nose. Spicy and lively in the mouth, with sweet plum and red berry flavors complicated by pepper and spices. Not fleshy but ripe, lively and persistent. Finishes with slightly dry-edged, dusty tannins. (The Australian Wine Connection, Carlsbad, CA) 88 points."  Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Sep/Oct 05.

"Light in texture, ripe in flavor, with floral blackberry and gentle, Bordeaux-like spices lingering on the ripe, cedary finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec. Drink now through 2008. 2,000 cases made. –HS"  90 points, The Wine Spectator, Nov. 30, 2004.