Esk Valley Great Dirt River Gravel Hawke's Bay Syrah 2021

Esk Valley Great Dirt River Gravel Hawke's Bay Syrah 2021"Expressing purity and elegance, the wine shows Black Doris plum, mulberry, olive and roasted nut aromas on the nose, followed by a finely expressed palate delivering excellent weight and persistency. It's seamless and refined with layers of polished tannins, finishing graceful and lingering. From the Gimblett Gravels district" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Apr 2023 "Opaque appearance with a concentrated bouquet of dark cherries and baked plums, sweet scents

"Expressing purity and elegance, the wine shows Black Doris plum, mulberry, olive and roasted nut aromas on the nose, followed by a finely expressed palate delivering excellent weight and persistency. It's seamless and refined with layers of polished tannins, finishing graceful and lingering. From the Gimblett Gravels district" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Apr 2023

"Opaque appearance with a concentrated bouquet of dark cherries and baked plums, sweet scents of new barrel and toasty spices to match. Violets, meats, preserved fruits and warm gravel soils invade the senses. Power and precision on the palate with an abundance of polished tannins, a back bone of acidity and concentration of fruit flavours that mirror the bouquet. A delicious drink with length, complexity and finish" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, May 2023

"Inky, intense red with cassis, plum, raspberry, new leather, cacao buds and black pepper supported by tangy acidity and sweet, ripe tannins. High energy wine with good cellaring potential" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, May 2023

This is a deeply coloured and dense red wine. It exhibits a pure and varietal nose typical of the Gimblett Gravels, showcasing black fruits and spice notes which include sandalwood, camphor and black pepper. The wine is soft but has considerable tannin, supported by a fine thread of acid providing length and freshness. This wine will age well and gain considerable complexity with time.

This single vineyard wine is produced from a small parcel of Syrah vines located on the corner of Gimblett Road and Highway 50, at the heart of the famed Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District. The Limmer clone vines were planted in 1996 in very stony Class 1a Omahu Stony Gravels. Yields are kept low and the vines intensively farmed in the pursuit of quality.

The fruit was handpicked at 23 brix on the 30th March and fermented in a single concrete fermenter. 25% was left as whole clusters while the remainder was destemmed. The grapes underwent a natural fermentation with gentle hand plunging employed for tannin and colour extraction. Once dry the wine was macerated on skins to soften the tannins with a total vat time of around 30 days, before being pressed to 500 and 600 litre french oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and subsequent maturation. The wine was assembled as a blend after 14 months in barrel and was bottled in August 2022 without finings or filtration.