Theory & Practice Hawkes Bay Syrah 2016

Theory & Practice Hawkes Bay Syrah 2016"This is sweetly fragrant on the nose showing blackberry, raspberry coulis, game, warm spice and floral characters. The palate delivers lovely fruit weight and succulent fruit flavours, beautifully supported by smooth texture and polished tannins. The wine offers pristine fruit notes together with elegant spicy savoury nuances, making it highly enjoyable. At its best: now to 2020" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, May 2018 "Even, moderately dark ruby red colour

"This is sweetly fragrant on the nose showing blackberry, raspberry coulis, game, warm spice and floral characters. The palate delivers lovely fruit weight and succulent fruit flavours, beautifully supported by smooth texture and polished tannins. The wine offers pristine fruit notes together with elegant spicy/savoury nuances, making it highly enjoyable. At its best: now to 2020" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, May 2018

"Even, moderately dark ruby-red colour with youthful purple hues, lighter on the rim. The nose is elegantly proportioned with moderate depth and concentration of blackberry and dark raspberry fruit along with black pepper notes, nuances of spice and violet florals, and hints of complexing savoury reductive minerals. Medium-bodied, the palate is taut with a tightly bound core of finely concentrated flavours of blackberries and dark raspberries, along with savoury black pepper notes, hints of spice and a little reductive detail. The mouthfeel is bright and lively, the fruit sweetness underlined by fine-grained tannin extraction with balanced acid freshness. The flavours carry to an elegant, lingering finish. This is an elegant and tightly bound Syrah with blackberry and dark raspberry flavours along with savoury black pepper, spice, floral and reductive notes on affine-textured, fresh palate.
Match with slow-cooked game meat and casseroles over the next 5 years. Chave and MS clone Syrah from the ‘Stewart’ and ‘Lyons’ vineyards, Bridge Pa, hand-picked and destemmed and indigenous yeast fermented to 13.0% alc., the wine aged 20 months in 20% new French oak barrels" Raymond Chan, May 2018

Deep red in colour with a purple hue. A complex savoury nose with fruit characters of blueberry and cranberry. Notes of wet earth, chorizo and five spice give additional interest to the aromatic profile. The palate is full bodied and rich with a toasty and meaty complexity. The spice notes are from both the fruit-five spice and black pepper-and the newer barrels. An umami like savouriness beef stock and soy-comes from a long maturation time on yeast lees. The texture on the palate is from supple front palate grape skin tannins. These tannins help balance the fruit richness and give the wine structure without contributing hardness.

All fruit was hand-harvested and destemmed to open top fermenters. The grapes were ‘cold soaked’ for seven days before undergoing a quick fermentation with natural vineyard yeasts. After fermentation the young wine was pressed to tank before draining to French oak barrels - 20% were new. Malo-lactic fermentation was completed in barrel and the wine left to age on full lees. After 20 months of aging the barrels were blended and the wine bottled.

Food Pairing: Enjoy this wine with grilled or braised red meat dishes.