I first tasted this new release Hawke’s Bay Syrah from the Redstone Vineyard at a dinner at Somm alongside a sensational Confit duck leg, with parisian gnocchi, butternut, prunes and beurre noisette dish. It was one of the food course & wine matches that stands out in recent years – a match made in heaven. For this single vineyard expression, the team at Church Road are looking for a vineyard that has performed really well in that vintage – and a wine that personified the character of that.
A suggestion of whole-bunch winemaking gives the fragrance a lifted floral and peppery edge. A blending of red and black fruits, with ripe raspberry and plum fruit sitting above a ‘sous bois’ savoury element with lots of cocoa, spice and mossy, umami flavours bleeding through. A tight, structural quality and weight to the mid-palate that is power-packed and elegant, but would benefit from cellar time to develop and meld together. A lovely drying minerality, with an iron-earth quality that shows in the fine tannin, in particular. Textural and spicy, there’s a well-structured length to the finish. 95pts
