Esk Valley Artisanal Syrah 2020

The wine is medium to deep red, with aromas that showcase the red fruit elements of Hawkes Bay Syrah, including raspberries with undertones of wood spice and pepper. In the mouth the wine is soft and generous with flavours like the nose of red berries and jam, with an underlying acidity providing elegance and length. Delicious as a young wine, it will also reward cellaring.

The grapes for this wine were grown in two contrasting Hawkes Bay sites. The free draining stony gravels of Gimblett Road provide the wine with dark fruit notes and a tannic frame while the limestone soils of the Heipipi Vineyard in Bay View adds perfume and complexity. Both these free draining vineyard sites are planted with the Limmer clone and are aged from 12 to 25 years.

2020 will be remembered as a great Hawkes Bay vintage. Early season rainfall enabled healthy vines to get established before a hot dry Spring ensued. Some cooler weather in January helped preserve freshness and natural acidity in the grapes and a settled dry Autumn allowed fruit to be harvested in great condition with ripe flavours.

The individual vineyard parcels were destemmed on arrival at the winery and transferred to small 5 tonne open topped concrete fermenters for fermentation with wild vineyard yeasts. Once active the ferments were managed by hand to gently extract colour and tannin. After a period of post fermentation maceration the grapes were gently pressed and transferred to French oak barrels for 17 months ageing. Both small 228 litre and large format 500 and 600 litre puncheons were utilised. 29% were new.