• Concentrated fruit
• Subtle spice
• Ripe tannins
• Silky mouth feel

"A late-release wine from a stellar vintage. I awarded 96 points four years ago. Time has been kind to it (as predicted). Silken-textured syrah that’s still reasonably fresh with some savoury bottle-aged characters just beginning to emerge. A beautifully-layered wine that begs to be savoured" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Feb 2020

This Syrah is a blend of parcels from Villa Maria's premium vineyards in Hawkes Bay's Gimblett Gravels. 2014 delivered intense and concentrated Syrah wines. Dense red hues lead to a perfumed nose of red fruits, spice and violets. Subtle whole-bunch inclusion adds further complexity. Ripe tannins encase concentrated fruit characters on a long and silky palate. Careful cellaring will reward with further complexity.

2014 in Hawkes Bay was simply a superb red wine vintage and a very welcome follow up to the highly acclaimed 2013 vintage. The region was treated to one of the warmest growing seasons in recent records (warmer than 2013) with intermittent rain fall events, enough to encourage vine health and flavour development without bringing on disease. Typical Hawkes Bay nights moderated daytime temperatures allowed for steady sugar and flavour accumulation across Syrah vineyards. Picking decisions were based around flavours and the resulting fruit was clean, ripe and full of flavour.

Villa Maria’s Reserve Syrah vineyards are located in the Gimblett Gravels of Hawkes Bay. This unique and highly prized area of land is fast becoming recognised as having superb growing conditions for producing Syrah of world class standard. The free-draining soils, warm daytime temperatures and cool nights encourage naturally devigouratedvines to ripen their low yields slowly and evenly. These factors, along with well-timed vineyard management techniques ensure the resulting wines are deeply coloured and well structured, with pure aromatics and flavours classic to the variety.