Čuvar Iris Hawke's Bay Syrah 2023

Description

Blackberry, Herbal, Oak

"An excellent bouquet with a varietal grab of dark berries, plum and baking spices. There’s a light peppery spice reminder of the variety though the use of barrel and lees frames the fruit more with some complexity and charm. Mouthfeel and core fruit flavours demand equal attention on the palate, flavours of blackcurrant and roses, a clay mineral quality and chewy phenolics complete the wine on the palate. Best drinking from late 2025 through 2029" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Dec 2024

"It's elegantly perfumed on the nose, showing Black Doris plum, sweet cherry, dried herb, white pepper, and toasted almond characters. The palate delivers juicy fruit intensity with fine texture and silky flow, well framed by layers of polished tannins, finishing long and supple. At its best: now to 2030" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec 2024

Garnet red in colour and a bouquet of blackberry with hints of cedar, this wine leads to a palate rich in red berry fruits and hints of bracken and wild thyme. Firm, ripe tannins create a backbone enveloped in juicy sun kissed fruit that lengthens on the palate to leave you with a lip smacking finish and wanting more.

Hawkes Bay, Cornerstone, Kokako The canopy was kept open to ensure airflow around the bunches which kept them clean and open to sunlight. This meant that the fruit was picked at the exact time we needed to make the wine, rather than be dictated by the weather.

The Syrah weathered the early cyclone and continued to ripen to produce fruit with depth of flavours and ripe tannins – the perfect palette to create this wine.

We were spoilt for choice with Syrah fruit in 2023 and this enabled us to ferment in several different batches. A batch picked later in the season was 100% natural ferment, gentle hand plunging and pressed off with the least intervention possible. Another batch was fermented with a specific yeast from Rhone. All wines were drained and carefully pressed off in to both 15% new and 85% seasoned 225L and 300L barrels to extract different levels of oak where they matured for over 18 months before racking and blending. No fining was added to this wine – it was just right.