The sun sets on a beautiful vintage

Te Awa Pinotage holds a special place in my heart as the first case of wine we ever purchased.
It was 2005, Chris and I were living in New Zealand working on King Kong and discovering wine for the first time.
Sure we had each drank some swill (and some good swill) prior to our Kiwi adventure, but this was the first time in our life that we truly explored wine.
Before the insanity of production set in, we had spare time to enlist in our first tasting classes and visit wineries.
In relative terms, New Zealand is an infant in the wine world;  yet there is quite an assortment of regions to explore.
One day I hope to have the time to sort through the gigs of photos and post some of my fondest memories of visiting the various areas.

Back to the Pinotage.  I am shocked that after all the wine we had on that night and since then, I remember the first time I tasted it.
We were out with a group of friends at Arbitrageur, one of the few restaurants at the time that had an incredibly extensive list of wines by the glass as well as some great tapas.
Someone ordered a "taste" of the Pinotage and I believe by the end of the night we had ordered at least one bottle of it.
Peppery on the nose and mouth with a velvety smoothness and that gorgeous ruby red color.

It was not the easiest to find and the case was not acquired until months later when Chris was touring with his folks and Te Awa was a stop on their journey.
We had discovered that the '03 vintage did not have quite the same magic and the '02's were almost gone.
If I remember the story correctly, the owner had to do quite a bit of digging around to find a case for us.

We have never seen the Te Awa Pinotage for sale in the states and have fallen victim to our own frugality.  It is such a double edged sword when collecting wine of trying to find the balance between "saving it for later" and waiting too long.
I fear this is the last (and possibly one past the last) year for this vintage.

The nose was still quite impressive, and the essence of its younger beauty sill there, but the magic has gone.
I believe this to be our last bottle from the case.