I was polishing off a bottle of Hawke’s Bay Syrah last night with a flatmate. I thought it was elegant; he didn’t think it had enough balls. I tried to explain that just because it didn’t have balls didn’t mean it wasn’t a great wine. Big doesn’t mean better. But what if that’s what you like?
We concluded that everybody needs to find a wine critic with similar taste. It helps if they write well (that doesn’t stop a few people) but wine is a matter of taste.
It’s the same with film reviews. Any movie that gets a five star rating in the Independent newspaper, I avoid like the plague: The Aviator, The English Patient, Lord of the Rings. Spare me the three-hour epic. If it gets two stars the likelihood is, it’s for me. There’s nothing wrong with liking a trashy movie and there’s nothing wrong with drinking something uncomplicated mid-week. It can be tiring being highbrow all the time.
Having judged at a few wine tastings recently, panels should even things out. However, we’re all trying to look for elegant, restrained wines at the moment – sometimes that isn’t what people want.
I’ve been asking myself whether Hawke’s Bay should be concentrating on Syrah or Bordeaux blends for a few months now – and it seems the same question is floating around on Waiheke Island.
Bordeaux blends initially put the island on the map but Syrah is now creeping up behind it and making a big splash.
Syrah is my favourite grape variety so I’ll admit I could be a bit biased but in my opinion, the Syrahs from Waiheke better reflect their sense of place than Cabernet blends. Feel free to disagree but that’s the way I see it.
The Bordeaux blends are very good, often elegant (although some aren’t so good: I don’t think Cabernet and American oak go together) with black ripe fruits, firm tannic structure and medium to high alcohol.
There are green capsicum (even brussel sprout) notes found in many Cabernets here alongside a ripeness of fruit and tannin that you don’t find in Bordeaux. The green aromas are not unpleasant at all (hey, it’s Cabernet’s varietal character) but in a cooler year, ripening can be an issue. Neil Culley, founder of Cable Bay says, “The Cabernet sites need to be warm right to the end of the season so they need to be in the middle of the island or sheltered sites.” Cool sea breezes scupper Cabernet’s chances of ripening and some sites are certainly not suited to it.
But the Syrah screams class in a glass. It’s unique and performs consistently year to year. Yes, it’s a vigorous little bugger but on a low vigour site and with careful management, boy is it characterful.
Daniel Schuster (no relation of Michael), a flying wine consultant with Stag’s Leap and Chateau Palmer on his CV, says, “There are Bordeaux varieties here and it is obvious they are working. But the Syrah is the closest I have seen to classic Rhone. They have Syrah that doesn’t taste like marmalade, full of American oak.” Which Syrah producing region are you referring to, I wonder Danny?!!
The Syrahs here are full of blackberry, violets, floral notes and, although many try to deny their wines are peppery, they are. Get over it – some of us kinda like it.
If I were a producer on Waiheke, I’d be planting Syrah and I think this should be the Island’s flagship. Duncan McTavish, winemaker at Man O’War, the island’s largest producer, says, “I don’t think we necessarily need a flagship. The two can co-exist. We built our reputation on Bordeaux blends. Syrah is the new kid on the block and it has made a big statement early on. But we can’t focus on one to the detriment of the other.”
I attended my first wine trade tasting in Auckland at the end of last week. They’re few and far between compared to the tasting fests in London, where you could attend a tasting every day of the week, if you didn’t actually have a job to do.
I had to invite myself, as I must not be on the radar here in NZ yet.
Te Mata’s tasting compared its 98s with the recently released 08s. They showed us their three top wines: the Bullnose Syrah, Awatea Bordeaux blend and their flagship wine Coleraine - another Bordeaux blend.
As a massive fan of Syrah, the 08 Bullnose really impressed me. It had that beautiful pepper note we have come to love from Hawke’s Bay plus aromas of violets and balsamic. It wasn’t overly weighty and had a really focused mid-palate, moderately fresh acidity and silky ripe tannins. It needs time still but a gold medal winner for me. While I love a sprinkle of black pepper in my Syrah, winemaker Peter Cowley is clearly not so keen. “We used to call it fly spray in the winery but with vine age it’s less overtly peppery. We are probably at the lower end of where you can ripen Syrah. We don’t like too much pepper although the public seem to. They might need a bit of training up in the respect.” Er, excuse me Peter, I love the pepper. Do I need some more training up too?
The ’98 Bullnose was another impressive wine but has developed as far as you would want it to go and needs drinking. It’s no longer on the market so it’s not like you can rush out and buy it anyway. It still had that balsamic note combined with dried fruit, black tea leaf and liquorice. The classy focus was still there but it was gearing up for retirement.
It seems Cabernet/Merlot blends are more appreciated at Te Mata and the 98s are not yet ready to draw their pension, no doubt the Cabernet tannins and acid provide that extra longevity. Both of the 08 wines had pure cassis fruit and showed green bell pepper aromas typical of Cabernet but it wasn’t an unattractive green note that you find in many Chilean Cabernets. Cowley added, “People talk about the green character and that’s part of the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal character. If we wanted to blow all that off, we would go and make wine in the Barossa Valley.”
Both of these wines are incredibly youthful and have structured powdery tannins. They’re both fleshy in the middle with balanced alcohol and fresh acidity. The Coleraine ain’t cheap at NZ$60-65 with the Awatea a more reasonable $30. It’s great to taste the top-end of the wines and as a journalist I’m very lucky to do that but I look forward to trying their entry level wine, the Woodthorpe range, as a winery should be judged on its cheapest as well as it’s most expensive wines.
Hawke’s Bay producers based close to the Gimblett Gravels in ‘The Triangle’ are planning to group together to gain international recognition for their terroir.
While still embryonic, producers including Bridge Pa and Alpha Domus aim to form a ‘Triangle’ association to compete with their well-known neighbours Gimblett Gravels.
Paul Ham, Managing Director at Alpha Domus, said, “We are constantly bombarded with Gimblett Gravels. I’m not complaining about it but it’s up to us to be proactive. Across the road from the Gravels we have this triangle sub-region which offers something else.”
“People have heard all about Gimblett Gravels and they are looking for what’s next from Hawke’s Bay, so we have a great opportunity to get some traction,” he added.
The Triangle – also known as the Ngatarawa or Bridge Pa triangle – first needs to settle on one name for the area and define its boundaries. It lies around one kilometre from the Gimblett Gravels, on the same former river bed but with a clay and sandy top soil. The wines are similar in style to the Gravels but Stephen Daysh, director of Bridge Pa, claims, “The Triangle fruit isn’t as dense or heavy as Gimblett Gravels but is a little more lifted and perfumed.”
This is not the first time people have talked about defining the area but it has not yet come to fruition. It is likely to come against some opposition from other Hawke’s Bay producers and the regional association, which aims to promote the region as a whole. Let’s face it, most consumers don’t even where New Zealand is, let alone Hawke’s Bay! However, in the fine wine market the Gravels have already started to gain recognition and the producers shouldn’t just sit and watch while they run away with all the headlines.
Other vineyard owners in the Triangle include Ta Mata, Sileni, Matua and Church Road.
One drop of rotundone is enough to make an Olympic size swimming pool smell peppery. One gram of this potent stuff could make the entire Australian Shiraz harvest smell peppery too. This compound was identified last year and was one of the more technical topics tackled at Hawke’s Bay’s Syrah symposium.
While there were a few tedious talks due to the bumbling nature of several speakers, it was an interesting day.
Tastings from around the world proved a point that New Zealand Syrah is pretty distinctive and can be picked from a line up of the rest of the world’s other Syrah producers. The Northern Rhone has its own unmistakeable style while South Africa can generally be picked for its burnt rubber/Stilton/gamey/call it what you will savoury notes. But New Zealand has its own New World version of the Rhone. It’s an elegant riper style with black pepper and ripe brambles, dusty firm tannins and a lovely freshness.
British speaker Tim Atkin MW published an article back in 2007 claiming ‘Syrah could save the day in Hawkes Bay’. He encouraged more planting of the variety three years ago but the call clearly fell on deaf ears as a mere 10 hectares have been planted across New Zealand since then! He stood up yesterday and told them the same story – to take Syrah more seriously.
If Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up more than 80% of New Zealand wine exports falls out of fashion in the same way that Australian Chardonnay did, New Zealand needs a plan B. Yes, it has other varieties planted but they’re a bit of a sideshow at the moment. New Zealand really has an opportunity to take the world by storm with Syrah. It could be as successful as its Pinot Noir. Let’s hope someone’s listening this time.
On another note, while I love some Australian Shirazes, there’s clearly a problem of over-acidifying. In a line-up of the top Shirazes in the country, the line-up was marred by sourness on the finish that I can only explain as overzealous acid additions. Think sucking on a lemon. Paringa Estate, Shaw & Smith and to some extent Clonakilla displayed this and they really need to rethink it.
The wines are clearly top quality with great concentration and texture but this sourness is not acceptable. Many New Zealand winemakers came up and agreed with me after I’d stuck my neck out at the seminar but I think it got some Australian backs up. What’s wrong with honesty?
Well it seems, honesty is a bad thing. I didn’t realize that this was a particularly sensitive issue in Australia at the moment after fellow English wine journo Andrew Jefford made a speech at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide in November about this and other things (click here to see the speech in full) He said “Misjudged acid addition is, for me, the defining fault of the Australian wine industry, and I regret the fact that it is rarely if ever viewed as a fault here. I’ve tasted hundreds of wines since my arrival here which I truly feel are defaced by acidity. Potentially fine wines which would, in other words, have been much, much better with much softer, less assertive levels of acidity. Lower acid levels would lead to flavour profiles of greater delicacy, expressivity and finesse, and a much subtler sensual appeal. One of the most frequent criticisms of Australian wine from both consumers and the international press is of homogeneity, and no single factor tends to reinforce this sense of sameiness more than acid adjustment as it’s currently practiced here.”