Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Syrah 2021

Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Syrah 2021"For the first time, this Tom Syrah isnt a blend from across the best vineyards and parcels but a single vineyard wine from The Bridge Pa Redstone Vineyard the same as the 1 series Syrah. A dense, inkily dark red in the glass. Perfumed with red berries, dark chocolate, kirsch, cinnamon, coffee bean, garrigue, blueberry and lifted aromas of lavender and lilac florals. Freshness and fragrance over a tight and structured core, and warmth, through the

"For the first time, this Tom Syrah isn’t a blend from across the best vineyards and parcels – but a single vineyard wine from The Bridge Pa ‘Redstone’ Vineyard – the same as the ‘1’ series Syrah. A dense, inkily dark red in the glass. Perfumed with red berries, dark chocolate, kirsch, cinnamon, coffee bean, garrigue, blueberry and lifted aromas of lavender and lilac florals. Freshness and fragrance over a tight and structured core, and warmth, through the heart of the palate. That rich and fleshy fruit sits across the palate, alongside a chinotto-like bitters element. Buoyant, energetic  acidity. Fine, chalky tannins nestle amongst an earthy, stony minerality. In short – the balance is superb. Towards the finish, a creamy layers of texture drifts across and slows things down, in readiness for the next sip. A seamless, lengthy finish. 96pts" David Walker-Bell, WineFolio, Sep 2023

"An enticing bouquet of flowers red berry fruit and spices. There’s a soil signature and layers of oak spices, raspberry and fresh red plum, crushed stones and dry clay then a sweet nut scent. Youthful and complex. Delicious on the palate, fragrant and satin textured, a core of ripe red fruit flavours that reflect the bouquet, an abundance of finely textured almost powdery tannins, a back bone of acidity and overall excellent structure. Spices from fruit and barrel weave through the core fruit flavours adding highlights and power. Dry on the finish, complex and perfectly weighted. A complete wine that will age and develop given the time to do so. Best drinking likely from 2025 through 2034" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Aug 2023

A wine of great depth, the fruit expresses as ripe berry and black plum, with top notes of violets, lavender, liquorice and anise. The vibrant fruit has leant a more serious, brooding nature by darker complexities of warm earth, new leather, cedar, cacao and savoury roasted notes along with an underlying ferrous minerality typical of this vineyard. The palate is fine, full and long with a silky tannin structure giving an overall impression of elegance, completeness and restrained power. While approachable now, good Hawke’s Bay Syrah will age gracefully for 20 years or more.

Situated in the Bridge Pa Triangle Winegrowing District, Redstone is approximately 40 M above sea level, far enough inland to be sheltered from the sea breeze and in the lee of Roy’s Hill which protects the site from cold air draining out of the mountains to the west. This makes Redstone one of the warmest vineyards in Hawke’s Bay, perfect for the cultivation of later ripening varieties. The soils here are known as red metals, formed by a 10,000 year old, free draining, alluvial greywacke gravel riverbed since covered by a shallow layer of wind-blown loess and iron rich volcanic ash that is responsible for the distinctive rust coloured staining of the stones. This site typically produces ripe, supple and very aromatic wine with an amalgam of red and black fruit and lifted floral fragrance.

weather over most of the season. A significant sustained drought period lasted from mid-summer through until well after harvest was completed, allowing for all fruit to be harvested in optimum condition. A little cooler than 2020, the vintage is characterised by exuberant aromatics and excellent structure, which should see some very long-lived wines. The vines were trained to 2 cane VSP and we employed extensive shoot and fruit thinning, along with bunch positioning, shoulder removal, declumping, close canopy trimming and 100% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly spaced and well exposed crop. Soil moisture was monitored regularly to regulate a deficit drip irrigation programme. This kept the vines in a functioning yet low vigour state that promoted both ripening and concentration. Approaching harvest time, we visited the blocks every 2 or 3 days, tasting, evaluating flavour and ripeness and checking for condition to ensure we picked at the ideal moment; our aim was to achieve a balance between density, power, freshness and precision in the resulting wines.

Most of the fruit was selectively harvested across an automated sorting table to remove any green material before being crushed to fermenters, while a small proportion (9%) was whole bunch fermented, providing another layer of aromatic lift to the wine. Fermentation was allowed to peak at 34 deg C ensuring good extraction of colour and ripe tannin. The wines were allowed to undergo post fermentation maceration for a total time on skins of between two to three weeks. This maceration period brings greater richness and texture to the palate and helps to integrate and balance the tannins in the wines. This is further aided by regular aeration, which also stabilises colour and opens up fruit aromatics, downplaying leafier herbal notes and allowing the aromatic floral and spice notes to shine. We taste daily to determine the amount of aeration and to determine the optimum time to drain and press. The component wines were then filled to French oak barriques (36% new) to complete malolactic fermentation and subsequent maturation for 17 months, with the first six months barrel maturation conducted on lees to help further build palate texture. The final blend was a barrel selection of our very best Syrah parcels from the 2021 vintage. The blend was racked for clarity and, to avoid any unnecessary stripping effect, was bottled without any subsequent fining or filtration.