Syrah is trending big time at the moment and in our opinion, there ain’t nobody who’s doing it better than the Hawkes Bay region.  Blended with fruit from a combination of vineyard sites, one of which is the famed Gimblett Gravels, this wine offers massive bang for buck.  Mission Estate is one of our country’s leading, not to mention oldest wine producers, and their wine is consistently GOOD.

"This is cracking good. Perfumed aromas of blackberry, dark plum, clove and toasted nut characters on the nose. The palate is concentrated and beautifully weighted, and displays pristine fruit flavours with silky texture, leading to an impressively long, succulent finish. The wine is youthful, yet immediately appealing. At its best: now to 2020." Sam Kim Wine Orbit

The wine exhibits an abundance of dark berry, spice, mocha and floral aromas. The Gimblett gravels portion contributes to the structure and sweet spice aromas. The palate is soft, showing dark berry, chocolate and spices with silky tannins giving a fine structure and long finish.

The fruit was fermented in small fermenters with the fermentation temperatures peaking at 30 degrees. There were daily pumpovers that were stopped at the end of fermentation, after which there was a post fermentation maceration of up to three weeks depending on the vat and its development on the skins. Once the finished wine was pressed off the skins, we allowed the natural malo-lactic fermentation to soften acids and enhance mouth-feel. 50% of the wine was aged 13 months in French oak barriques.

Fruit was chosen off premium free draining gravel soils to produce this wine. This included parcels off the Gimblett Gravels, the Triangle and Ohiti road. Fruit thinning was employed to restrict crop loads and ensure good fruit maturity. The warm dry summer in 2015 ensured the fruit achieved good concentrated and ripe flavours.