NZ Syrah

Elspeth is Mills Reef?s top tier range, produced from their vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels, Hawke?s Bay. This Syrah is intensely concentrated and complex, displaying luscious boysenberry, white pepper spice and liquorice notes.

Trademark wines are only made in a good vintage, with fairly small print runs.  They're drinkers and keepers.  Made from 100% Hawke's Bay gold.

Ripe fruit from three of our Trademark Syrah vineyards planted on limestone hillsides and an old riverbed. It shows admirable ripeness and depth of flavour, retaining vibrancy and great complexity on the nose and palate with typical violet, spice, black cherry and subtle white pepper notes. Supple chalky tannins provide a structure that promise time in bottle will be rewarded.

Homage is Trinity Hill?s top red and was first made in 2002 from 100% Syrah grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke?s Bay. It was inspired when its founder, winemaker John Hancock, visited Gerard Jaboulet in Tain l?Hermitage in the northern Rhone Valley, France and met Gerard Jaboulet and his father Louis, who produced the great wine, Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle ? one of the great reds of the first half of the 20th Century. It?s still one of the northern Rhone?s great reds but is not always considered the absolute pinnacle these days, despite its illustrious history and its evocative name ? after a small stone chapel supposedly built as a retreat for a 13th century knight loved the hill of Hermitage above the Rh?ne.

Back in New Zealand, Hancock was so inspired that he returned to the Rhone to work the 1996 harvest at Jaboulet, an experience which cemented his own passion for northern Rhone Syrah styles. This was further cemented when Gerard Jaboulet sent him three clones of Syrah and one of Viognier as a gift from the Hermitage appellation. Gerard passed away in 1997 at the age of 55 but Hancock had those vine cuttings quarantined and propagated so that he was able to plant them in 2002, alongside Trinity Hill Winery?s first Syrah vines, which were planted in 1995 with cuttings from the neighbouring Stonecroft vineyard.

Long story short, the first small production Syrah was produced at Trinity Hill in 1997 and has since grown so that the winery produces three different Syrahs, of which Homage is the king.

Great ripe, juicy new Hawke's Bay Syrah from maverick winemaker Rod McDonald, whose love affair with Syrah shows in this full bodied red made from a mix of French clones and was made traditionally with the grapes going through a cold soak to extract colour before natural fermentation kicked off eventually building up to a strong, hot ferment.

McDonald describes this wine as having beautiful, lifted floral notes and a lovely punchy mouthful of fruit and earth.  Bright and vibrant with aromas of raspberries, violets and nutmeg. Silky with great balance and a fine structure. 

Mills Reef Winery is based in Tauranga and makes its stellar wines from grapes grown in New Zealand's two biggest wine regions; Marlborough and Hawke's Bay, respectively. 

This dry full bodied and spicy Syrah is made from grapes grown in Hawke's Bay where the warm climate adds weight, spice and ripe fruit flavours. Great drinking and excellent value for money for enjoying now or in the next four to five years.

Le Sol means sunshine or soil, depending on which language you're talking - and either way, it is a lovely evocative description of one of the best Syrahs made in Hawke's Bay every year. This incredibly powerful wine is a beautiful spicy expression of the great Syrah grape from the Northern Rhone Valley. It was aged for 27 months in French oak barriques.

Terrace Edge is a family owned, certified organic winery based in the Waipara Valley wine growing region. This Syrah has a nose of ripe blackberry and plum with notes of liquorice and spice. The palate is rich with dark fruit, supported by elegant ripe tannins.

Terrace Edge was named the New Zealand Organic Vineyard of the Year in 2018 and this year was named Aotearoa New Zealand Organic Winery of the Year.

Ash Ridge Wines is located in Hawke's Bay and is a family owned winery established in 2005 by Chris and Sonya Wilcock.

This gem from the stunning 2020 vintage has a savoury, gamey bouquet packed with meaty nuances, black pepper, herb, dark plum and blackberry. The palate is rich with dark fruit and savoury details thanks to a supple tannin framework and balanced acidity.

Squawking Magpie Stoned Crow Syrah is one of the jewels in Hawke's Bay's red wine crown with great consistency every vintage. It's one of our favourite full bodied New Zealand Syrahs in store and is a single vineyard wine which will reward lovers of spicy dry reds with its great cellarability as well as its deliciously plump fruit forward style right now. 

Age it for 10 years to see where the fun really starts with complex deeply flavoursome Syrah.  

An outstanding vintage from Hawke's Bay, potentially the best ever. The Stone Syrah from Elephant Hill is part of the winery's Elemental range of wines, which champions the sub regions of Hawke's Bay. This wine represents the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District, which encompasses a vast 800+ hectares in the Bay and where stony soils absorb warmth, aid drainage and help ripen late harvested grapes such as Syrah. This wine accentuates the spicy overtones and beautiful dark plum aromas of great Syrah. .

An elegant Syrah from Hawke's Bay winemaker Kate Radburnd, whose extensive experience of making Syrah brings out the best in this exotic spicy French grape variety. Red fruit aromas are supported here by a velvet smooth backbone of fine tannins. Pure fruited and fragrant, with blueberry and cardamon spice. This Syrah has lingering length and persistence of flavour, a hallmark of this variety.

This delicious, dark and juicy new release is made from hand harvested Syrah grapes, which were destemmed and fermented in open tops with some foot stomping. Some whole bunches were incorporated in the ferment.

Matt Dicey, Winemaker notes:

?Vibrant aromas of black pepper, liquorice and floral notes on the nose. With a dense and savoury tinged mid-palate with sandalwood and cedar notes drawing the wine together. Cassis flavours flow through the fine acidity driving through a long finish.?

Winery notes:

Our Ghost Town Syrah is one of the few Syrah?s you?ll find from a region so famous for Pinot Noir. Handcrafted in limited quantities from our Bendigo Vineyard in Central Otago, planted in 2001 at a higher altitude. Together with Bendigo vineyard?s unique personality and minimal winemaking intervention, this Syrah displays fine texture and suppleness. We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for a further 10-15 years.

Great wine from a great vintage in Hawke's Bay, which translates into ripe, dark, spiced fruit characters in this Syrah, which forms part of the stable of wines in Church Road's 1 Series.  

Winemaker Chris Scott describes it as a "Wine built around a core of brambly dark berry fruit, carrying lifted aromatic notes of violets and mulling spices, along with complexities of new leather and subtle toasty, savoury oak undertones. The palate is fine and long with a fine grained tannin structure and excellent mid palate flesh giving a very even, long and seamless mouthfeel. While approachable now, good Hawkes' Bay Syrah will age gracefully for 20 years of more."

Here here. A keeper.

The Bilancia Syrah is sourced from a single vineyard on Roy's Hill, Hawke's Bay. This is a very fruit forward, bright wine with floral complexity on the nose and a spicy, youthful palate.