Hawkes Bay is located on the eastern coast of the North Island and experiences some of the highest heat accumulation in the country. Hawkes Bay’s climate has been described as almost perfect for growing Syrah, and the Hawkes Bay Winegrowers Inc describe syrah as “the most exciting wine produced in the Hawkes Bay”. Hawkes Bay has a total winegrowing area of 4947ha, of which 34% is Syrah, making up 86% on New Zealand’s total syrah production. 

Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2009

This wine was as clean cut as they come, reminiscent of an over-produced mass-market wine, it had little if any ‘character’ but was pleasant to drink. The traditional black pepper aroma of Syrah’s from Hawkes Bay was reduce to a hint of spice and fruit flavours were vinous and a touch green. This is indicative of a poor year, with fruit lacking concentration and having unripe phenolics. Craggy Range report that 2009 was close to a complete disaster with moderate temperatures and high rainfall leading to high disease pressure and inconsistent berry development.

Brookfields Hillside Syrah 2009

Grown on a north facing slope this syrah seemed to have not suffered the same lack of intensity as the Craggy Range syrah, although slight vegetative and bitter notes of the finish are indicative of a poor season. The concentration of flavour and complex array of character made this wine an excellent example of what Hawkes Bay can produce, even in poor vintages. Brookfields maintain low volumes so they can focus on high quality over quantity and it shows in the care with which this wine has been made.

Te Awa Syrah 2010

This wine had a huge hole in the mid palate, which indicates to me that complexity and finesse have been forsaken in favour of upfront fruit flavours to appeal to the mass market. With little or no structure and a complete lack of character this wine is unlikely to age elegantly making the $35 price tag rather steep for a drink-now wine. Sulphur and mercaptans on the nose are indicative of an oxidative winemaking style applied without sufficient attention to detail. Perhaps this is because Ant McKenzie leaves the Syrah for long periods in barrel without sulphur.

Trinity Hill Syrah 2010

This quintessential Hawkes Bay syrah has all the right indicators of a quality producer – intense aromatics, complex flavours and a robust structure make this wine a great candidate for 3-6 years careful cellaring. Sadly this wine is still a little closed, with primary and secondary fruit character only just beginning to open up and develop tertiary characters. After 20 minutes in the glass a touch of parma ham on the nose gave hints at this wine’s potential. This wine is blended with a small amount of Viognier for added aromatic complexity and this shows on the nose.

Ngatarawa Glazebrook Syrah 2010

This wine was elegant and easy to drink but lacked a bit of concentration and primary fruit character. Peter mentioned that 2010 had very high disease pressure due to high humidity and rainfall during the growing season. This may be why the wine lacked primary fruit flavours and savoury tertiary characters dominated. I’m a big fan of Ngatarawa wines but this wine was an exception, but for the price it was still a pleasing drink.

Te Mata Estate Woodthorpe Syrah 2010

This wine was exceptionally easy drinking. Harsh phenolics and bitterness had been toned down to ‘consumer’ levels, and primary fruit flavours were rich and tasty. This wine was paler than the others, which indicates that maceration was limited to just enough for colour stability. Given the low phenolics and lack of the classic black pepper notes this wine was likely racked soon after fermentation with minimal lees contact and post ferment maceration. I would also hazard a guess that heavy handed fining/filtering was utilised to keep this wine clean and easy to drink.

Overall Impressions

The wines in this flight had a number of commonalities, such as peppery notes on the nose and rich dark fruit flavours, however there was enough variation to demonstrate that Hawkes Bay could make a range of styles successfully. It is more common in new world regions for a range of styles of wine to be made (because a dominant popular style has not yet emerged like it has with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc), leading to conflicting messages to consumers. As such, this may be why syrah has not (yet) taken off in Hawkes Bay as much as could be expected given the ample potential of the region. 

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Introduction

For this flight we tasted six Seresin ‘Leah’ Pinot Noirs from the 2005 – 2010 vintages. The purpose of the flight was to examine seasonal variation and ageing characteristics of wine. All the wines were made almost identically by winemaker Clive Dougall, who believes that wines should be an expression of time and place, and achieves this through minimalist intervention winemaking

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2005

This wine had lots of tertiary aroma character as could be expected of a wine that has aged elegantly. The nose was a little closed, indicative of a loss of aroma over time but brie, coffee and earthen notes with a hint of bret were all pleasant and well rounded. The acids and alcohol stood out on this wine, perhaps indicating that fruit flavours had diminished and the balance was thrown off a little, but may have been a result of a cool ripening season leading to grapes being slightly overripe but with high acid at harvest.

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2006

This wine seemed to have fared worse than the 2005 during ageing, with a less lifted nose and flatter palate. Fruit character was evident as cherry syrup and jam, making this more of a ‘plonk’, reminiscent of warm climate reds. The warm summer in 2006 may have over ripened the fruit flavours while leaving less structured phenolics. This meant that the wine was very drinkable, but hadn’t aged elegantly like the 05.

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2007

The 2007 was my clear favourite of the flight having aged wonderfully with beautiful primary and tertiary characters balanced with acids and alcohol. The poor fruit-set was natural yield limiting influence and the calm summer allowed phenolics to ripen in-sync with sugars, creating wonderfully balanced fruit. It was the intensity of flavour that won me over with this wine, primary fruit flavours had carried through ageing beautifully and tertiary flavours gave complexity and intrigue to this long lasting and sumptuous wine.

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2008

High yields from warm weather at fruit-set, and a warm summer likely led to these grapes lacking concentration and the resultant wine proved this. Primary fruit character was lost almost entirely behind hot alcohol and an acidic finish. The wine was linear and dilute, which leads me to believe that these grapes were picked after the rains in early April.

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2009

The vintage for this year was tricky, high yields required fruit thinning to ripen grapes in the cool summer – but from the rather disjointed flavours I’m of the impression that fruit ripened unevenly, leaving some fruit stemmy and phenolically unripe. Caramel and dusty aromas, along with barnyard and mushroom flavours indicate that tertiary characters have developed a little prematurely in this wine.

Seresin Leah Pinot Noir – 2010

This wine was a difficult one, good concentration of flavour was let down by poor integration and lack of phenolic structure. Fruit characters were lacking but I believe that this wine would open up with time, allowing primary aromas to balance a complex array of flavours just waiting to burst forth. Proclaimed as one of Marlborough’s exceptional vintages I would have expected more from this wine, although it is still very young and perhaps need time to settle into itself.

Overall Impressions

Comparing the vintage reports from Marlborough with my tasting notes provided great insight into these wines. While aging characters are somewhat predictable, knowing about the phonological development of grapes throughout the growing season helped me understand why certain characters were more or less dominant in each year and helped identify what was due to the season and what was due to ageing. While subtle winemaking differences are likely, the fruit expression as determined by the growing season was clearly the main factor influencing the quality of each wine.

From a winemaking perspective also, this flight has demonstrated the importance of understanding the effect that weather and climate has on grape development, such that winemaking decisions can be targeted at producing the highest quality wine possible each vintage.

The wines in this flight also highlight the importance of balancing phenolic ripeness with physiological ripeness, which stresses the importance of choosing when to harvest and demonstrates how weather events at harvest time can hugely impact on final wine quality.

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Introduction

The Riesling challenge was initiated in 2010 to exemplify the influence winemakers have in processing grapes into wine. The challenge was taken up by 12 leading New Zealand winemakers, who each received 4 tonnes of identical grapes, picked on the same day, from the same site (Mud House Glasnevin Rd block, Waipara) and distributed evenly from each part of the vineyard. Each winemaker was then charged with creating the best Riesling they could from the grapes provided (The_Riesling_Challenge 2010).

Seven of the twelve wines were tasted in the flight, which was led by Simon McGeorge from Waipara Hills, who provided winemaking notes and tasting notes for each of the wines.

Paul Bourgeois Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

This wine was the most lifted of the flight, most likely because it had the lowest residual sugar and highest alcohol, which helped to bring out the aroma. The palate was quite linear and a touch hot from the acid, with crisp apple flavour on the front and a candy aftertaste. These factors are likely due to excessive fining leaving flat and compartmentalised flavours.

Mike Brown Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

The defining feature of this wine was the lack of phenolic structure. This is a direct result of only utilising free run juice for the final blend and consequently having an unbalanced wine. The acids were sharp as would be expected from free run juice, but surprisingly the high acid didn’t carry the flavours through the palate, which dropped off after the mid-palate. The upfront flavours were pleasant and complex enough to make this a pleasant and easy wine to drink.

Patrick Mateman Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

This wine was exceptionally easy to drink but had little in the way of interesting flavours. Patrick used the most technical and elaborate techniques to make this wine, including three separate ferments, multiple rackings, acid adjustment and protein fining, and as a result has stripped all character from the wine, leaving it boring but easy on the palate. Acids were at the higher end of the spectrum, but all other metrics were decidedly mid-of-the-range, leading to the conclusion that he made this wine ‘by the book’.

Simon McGeorge Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

I found this wine bland and boring. Simon was the only winemaker in the flight to fine the must with a casein agent prior to fermentation, which will have helped remove most solids from the juice, leaving a somewhat linear and un-complex wine. The addition of the sweet wine seems to have added only sugar to the mix, resulting in a closed nose with vinous qualities. Additionally, storing the wine for a month at 0^oC may have prevented any secondary or tertiary characters developing post ferment.

Matt Dicey Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

A slightly higher residual sugar led to lower perception of acids in this wine. The wine had a slight bitterness and strong phenolic structure, most likely from not separating the free run juice from the press cut. As a result he had to add acid to balance phenolics, although a good overall balance was achieved as a result. The winemaking style was not outstanding in any way and neither was the wine.

Larry McKenna Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

This wine was my favourite of the flight because it had the best balance and yummiest flavours. The wine had the second highest RS of the flight and the lowest alcohol, a style popular for German Rieslings. The light pressing limited phenolic pickup and halting the ferment early left sufficient sugar to balance the high acids nicely. Hints of wet concrete on the nose are indicative of H₂S, which may have come from disulphides being reduced in the low redox conditions under screwcap.

Matt Donaldson Riesling Challenge Riesling 2010

Great concentration of floral, citrus, honey and pear flavours made the wine rich and luscious. With the highest TA of the flight the acids pulled through the high RS to give length and hints of phenolics gave excellent structure. The phenolic pickup likely came from the time taken to freeze the grapes prior to crushing, because he only took free run juice for the fermentation. Personally I found this wine was too sweet for a table wine, and not sweet enough for a dessert wine, and I felt that more acids would have helped cut through the sickly sweetness better.

Overall Impressions

Each of these wines was different but all had undertones of the same varietal composition. The expression of the grapes in these wines was unavoidable and though each wine was different, all had similar aroma and flavour descriptors of pear, honey and apples.

I found this tasting most interesting because it demonstrated the actual effects on flavour, aroma and mouth feel of a variety of winemaking decisions and highlighted some definite do’s and do not’s. Particularly interesting was that all winemakers chose gentle pressing or only free run cuts to avoid phenolic pickup which is undesirable in Riesling. This choice will have also maximised acid intensity to help carry the flavour through the varying degrees of residual sugar.

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This wine has a soft bouquet of ripe cherry and plum jam finished with a hint of higher-alcohol spiciness. Silky tannins and smooth hints of caramel and mushroom carry the mid palate through to a beautiful finish. This wine was beginning to show it’s age with subtle reductive notes on the nose and less than robust phenolics. That said the wine has aged well and was the favourite of the group, especially those more familiar with Old World styles.

Peregrine Pinot Noir 2008

This wine was showing beautiful fruit character with secondary aromas of caramel, boysenberry, pepper and gun flint. Cherry flavours dominated the mid palate which dropped off into a slightly bitter finish. Tannins were present and fine although slightly lacking in structure which shortened the finish and left the wine a little flat. This wine had great flavours but was a little disjointed which made it less favoured by the group.

Peregrine Pinot Noir 2009

The award winning 09 vintage is still going strong with a beautiful array of floral and fruity aromas giving way to a smooth and silky mid palate. Stone fruits and plum are complimented with a hint of mint and wild thyme giving complexity and strength. The finish is long and mouth filling, with soft tannins leaving only a slight puckering. This wine has perhaps reached it’s peak and will only be drinking well for another year or so. This fruit forward and delicate wine was more popular with the females in the group, though not all.

Peregrine Pinot Noir 2010

This bold and flamboyant wine has beautiful Doris plum and earthy notes on the nose. The firm and shifty tannins give weight and structure to a blackcurrant and spicy mid palate. This wine has an audacious charm that fills the mouth and lingers longer than you’d expect. Not only drinking well now this wine shows a robust character that will benefit from another 2-3 years cellaring. Second favourite of the group by consensus, although it was the most polarising wine of the flight.

Peregrine Pinot Noir 2011

Aromas of red currant and spice were complimented by subtle floral notes on the nose. In the mouth this wine is rich and bold with dark plum and cherry showing on the mid palate and giving way to fine but firm tannins. The finish was strong but abruptly dropped off to leave the wine a little short. This wine was a little disjointed because of its young age, however it has beautiful potential to age for another 3-4 years. This wine was received well by most, not a favourite but neither was it least favoured.

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Picture this – you’re sitting down to a lovely dinner, the host a well-to-do professional is serving a fine cut of red meat and couple of nice wines, one white, one red, when his rather precocious friend proclaims to the table “oh no I never drink white wine with red meat”….. Not an uncommon sentiment as traditionally red with red, white with white is a pretty safe rule for matching food and wine. So you think nothing of it – right?

Well there in-lies the subtlety that I wish to point out. You see, those that are passionate about wine will never say never, they will not make proclamations of what does and doesn’t work, they won’t make broad statements about varietal characters and they certainly won’t judge you for liking something different. Now this may seem obvious to you, you may recognise the diversity in wine, realise that no ‘rule’ cannot be broken, that in-fact – there are no rules.

Taste is subjective, wine is subjective, experience is subjective, preference is subjective and most importantly YOU are subjective. Everything you do is your own experience, everything said is from your own point of view and wine is no exception to this. Anyone with even a modicum of experience in wine knows that all the rules are thrown out the window on a daily basis by those revolutionaries who constantly seek their own version of perfection. Such people battle daily to broaden the definition of good taste and break down the staid and traditional values that get indoctrinated on the unwitting and unimaginative.

I can think of 100 examples but let me share with you just one. This one left me breathless. It stopped me in my tracks. It very nearly made me cry. I once believed that a good Pinot was delicate and fine, something to be gentle with and required the utmost care in production. Anything less was dull, boring and wasted. (Yes I too was one of those people once). And most importantly I believed that a Pinot grown in a stiflingly humid and wet region like Gisborne would, in reflection of its birthplace, be wet, bland and uninspiring. Then I tried the Milton 2007 Clos de St Anne Pinot Noir.

I’m not saying it’s the best wine in the world – I’m saying it made me weep. James Milton produces wines Biodynamically, which is to say he throws diluted cow poo around the vines with a paint brush and only minimally interferes in the winemaking process. What results from this is, surprisingly, biblical. It was soft as a virgins nape, bold as a fighters grin and after it has stuck it’s hand down my trousers and had a rummage around it sat quietly brooding in the corner like a chided three year old for most of the evening. It was mind boggling, to say the least. Now I’m not going to wax-lyrical about it’s complexity or tell you that the hints of cherry blossom and ripe plum aromas tipped a hat to the divine – but let me say one thing – It. Was. Epic.

So that’s my opinion – the friend who bought it to my soiree promising it would change my life didn’t like it – at all. He said it lacked the gumption of a Martinborough and the subtle aromatics of a Central Pinot – and that’s just the point. No matter what you know about wine, no matter what the ‘rules’ are, wherever you are, whoever you are with – wine is what YOU think it is. So forget the rules, forget the subtle hints of cracked acacia bark and wild nutmeg, forget the pomp – but do not forget to be passionate! Because if you open your mind and your heart – one day a wine will humble you into the simple realisation that you know nothing – and you will love it for that alone.

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