A summer’s evening sitting in the small outdoor room that owners Warren and Lorraine have built on their La Collina vineyard isn’t a bad way to spend the end of a busy day in Hawke’s Bay last week.
Their property is on the side of Roys Hill – next to the Trelinnoe Vineyard and overlooks the original plantings of Syrah that Stonecroft had, down on the flat. Lorraine explains “With Stonecroft, the vineyard you see there is the original plantings – after Mere Road. We have photos from when we bought our property and that was the only vineyard that was here. And then all the rest of this was a fruit salad of Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Cabernet. In discussion with a few people, the new owners – who are not grape growers – have taken it all out and just left the Syrah vineyard”.
I had noted that Hawke’s Bay was the greenest I’d ever seen it at this time of year. I wasn’t down in the wet summer of 2022, but I’m used to seeing a lot more brown around the hills. I ask how this year has been and Warren tells me “The season has been good. It could be very good. If we don’t get much more rain it could be potentially one of the great red seasons. But for Chardonnay it is already better than ’22. It’s warmer, so it’s quite different from the last two seasons. We’ve had a lot more days over thirty, so our acidity is lower and the flavours are there earlier. Last year we had an incredible season where it was early and we had high acid, high sugar. This one is more of a typical, warmer, vintage. So it is potentially a very good season, but it hasn’t happened yet!”
The wines I get to try this evening have either just been released, or about to be released. To start there is the 2024 Bilancia Chardonnay. It came out just before Christmas and the majority of the fruit comes from an organic vineyard on Ngatarawa Road. 2024 was a low-cropping year, so all of the other Chardonnay went into the respective Single Vineyard wines, and even then there is not a big volume of this one. Their approach is to work around their own fruit first – so, in 2023 the volume of the Bilancia Chardonnay was quite big as only the Kaikora SV Chardonnay was made – and the rest of the fruit went into this.
This wine is well known as an excellent glass pour in restaurants. This vintage it looks like a ‘sunny’ wine. The colour is more golden and there’s a generosity both on the nose and through the palate. Peach, quince and ripe citrus in the bouquet and repeating throughout. Lots of flavour but just a touch of new oak, and a silky texture.
2024 Kaikora Vineyard Chardonnay is the fifth edition of this single vineyard wine. It was also the only single vineyard wine that Bilancia made in 2023 – the vineyard being that much further south that it withstood some of the rain. This one isn’t 100% malolactic fermentation, where they’re looking to keep some of the fresh acidity. It has seemed to me to be the loudest voice of their Chardonnay range, and it is very concentrated and power-packed in this vintage too.
There’s an intensity of ripe citrus and stonefruit, as well as an appealing floral lift to the perfume. The oak is a touch more prominent here, adding a warmth and spice through the middle.
The day before, I had visited passionate growers Ian and Linda Quinn at Two Terraces Vineyard – and Bilancia are now making a single vineyard wine from there. 2024 Two Terraces Chardonnay takes fruit from the Lower Terrace. There’s an alignment here between two producers – one making wine and the other growing grapes, with hard graft and persistence and enthusiasm. Often working against the tide. Chardonnay isn’t a huge export market so doesn’t get too much backing from NZ Winegrowers, and this niche sub-set that labels like Bilancia or Tony Bish operate in, requires some serious self-determination. As Warren says: “We don’t have an entry level Sauvignon Blanc, but we found our own business grew once we focussed on Chardonnay and Syrah”.
Each of their single vineyard wines is actually a single clone as well. Not by design – even though it seems like a masterplan! The grapes that Bilancia get from Two Terraces is Clone 548. They have a number of different clones that go to various people. Warren recalls Ian Quinn calling him ten years ago and asking about clones. Steve Smith and Tony Bish probably advised to go to the Mendoza clone, but this was Warren’s advice. As a clone it is perhaps less aromatic than Mendoza, but as this tasting shows – the structure and texture is fantastic.
The wine has a distinctive herbal quality and is quite linear in the acidity and drive through the palate. Zesty – almost pithy, with great mid-palate weight to ground that rush of acidity. A balance of citrus, tropical fruit and a touch of hazelnut. A well-rounded example and one that I could see ageing very well.
I tried the 2024 Trelinnoe Vineyard Chardonnay as well, but that review is on this page (along with the Syrah) – https://winefolio.co.nz/?p=14238. Head there for the details.
After that is the 2022 Tiratore Chardonnay – which is always a couple of vintages behind the other wines. It was bottled around March 2023 so has been in bottle for three years. It is from the La Collina vineyard below me, and although it is a warm site, it doesn’t get too much sun in the morning, or again in the evening. The colour is excellent – a brilliant lemon-green colour and it has an almond cream note that’s quite evident in the perfume. A rich, generous style, but also very fine and detailed. There feels like quite a bit more new oak framing the fruit.
The 2024 Uvaggio helps tell part a story that we had talked around as we went. In previous years, Viognier had been around half of the wine – but for this vintage there was a tiny crop. For 2024 this Northern Rhone white style wine is around 65% Marsanne, 33% Rousanne and the rest is the Viognier. It’s what a field blend is – what the vintage provides. Warren confesses: “After what happened this year, we may rob more of the Viognier to co-ferment with the Trellinoe and La Collina Syrahs, and keep less in the Uvaggio”. Intensely aromatic, it has a lovely apricot, quince and jasmine heart. Lower in acidity but quite phenolic.
Moving on to reds – and starting with the 2025 Bilancia Syrah. This edition hasn’t seen any oak at all. Warren and Lorraine discussed whether to put some in old barrels and didn’t think it would help the wine. It’s very pure – and minimalist – Syrah. I’m not saying it is a simple wine, but it has a youthful beauty that is unpolished and didn’t need anything adding to it. I’ve been on a night out in the last few months and the first red wine I want might not be a huge tannic thing – I’ve had a Nebbiolo and a Grenache that both fitted the bill for something juicy and lighter. This wine sits in that area, very nicely. The price of barrels now is perhaps off-putting to buyers – which might be a good thing?
A step back in time – but still a new bottling – 2021 Trelinnoe Vineyard Syrah is next. Again – refer to that article with the Trelinnoe wines as per the Chardonnay. I won’t repeat it again here.
Warren has a theory that “people buy ‘La Collina’. I think that’s another part of the story. People buy ‘Coleraine’ right? They don’t care that’s it is a Cabernet, Merlot, Franc blend. They buy ‘Coleraine’ – it’s a brand. I don’t think that New Zealand Syrah is a strong brand. For years we had a Syrah event at The Chateau. We’d get Henschke, Tim from Klonakilla and Jean Chave and we’d all get excited about it ourselves. But it’s the people who are buying it you need to be excited”.
They planted the La Collina vineyard in 1998, and now they focus on it. Numerous wineries have Syrah as a small part of their portfolio, but as Bilancia have honed in – sometimes it is good to find your lane and stick to it.
The 2024 La Collina appears – after a couple of years not being produced – they didn’t even pick the hill. It is out a bit earlier than usual but Warren thought “this looks delicious already – why don’t we bottle it, and get it out early!” They do use 100% whole bunch – when the vintage suits it. And – according to their records – the wine has often had vastly different lengths of time in barrel. The 2024 vintage is everything you want from this wine. An elegance that begins in the bouquet – it is quintessentially Syrah. A touch of nettle green, then redcurrant, cranberry, black plum, white wood smoke and a lift of rose florals. The palate leads with sinewy tannins and there is a coiled power. Not overly extracted or unnecessarily complex, the beauty is in the balance and simplicity.
Luckily the label doesn’t need medal awards from Wine Shows to be able to sell the wines. The labels on the single vineyard wines tell a story – the symbols indicating what varietal is where on a stylised ‘map of the vineyard’. They are a beautiful and compelling example of infographics at work. In contrast the Bilancia labels – for the Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay and Syrahs, don’t need to ‘tell a story’ – they just need to be recognised on a shelf, or across a room.
Nearly thirty years after planting the vineyard, Warren claims “I’ll do it until I drop. The hillside is getting more difficult, but the lower part is quite easy. We do very little, and the game changer for us is the drone we’ve been using for spraying, for the last four years. The other vineyards take care of themselves of course – Ian and Linda do the work, for example – but we haven’t made ourselves too much of a problem – it’s a small vineyard. If we did to try to get some help, we could. The property is beautiful in itself, vineyard or not. And we can continue our brand as we get older.”
