Blood red and aromatic by nature

It is hard to understand why it took so long for New Zealand’s wine industry to come to terms with the grape variety syrah as it was at the very beginning of New Zealand’s wine adventure. Now that we have it sussed, there are some excellent examples appearing and New Zealand syrah has already established itself as one of the future greats to watch. The release of Kidnapper Cliffs in September is another step towards Hawkes Bay being mentioned in the same breath as Côte Rotie and Hermitage when the talk is of great syrah.

James Busby, the wine pioneer who explored Europe’s great vineyards for material on which to grow the best wine in this part of the world, was intrigued by Hermitage, home of the most famous syrah-based wines of the time. He brought examples of the best vine material from Hermitage hill sites out here as part of his now famous collection, and syrah was most certainly well distributed around the wine-growing regions of New Zealand by the turn of the 20th century.

In the modern era a few tentative steps were taken to produce something decent from syrah by two Auckland growers, Collards Brothers at Lincoln Road and Matua Valley in Waimauku, but both trials were disappointing. It was not until Alan Limmer took a punt at his then new Mere Road vineyard and produced an impressive Stonecroft wine in 1989 that heads began to turn in syrah’s direction.

At first, Limmer was alone and his efforts were compromised by the tough, cool vintages of the early ’90s, but even in the midst of those Pinatubo years they were wines that clearly showed the promise of this most remarkable variety. The best news for wine drinkers was that Limmer was not following blindly along behind the Australians as so many winemakers were doing. Instead he was engaged by the idea that the natural aromatic qualities and fine textures of Hawkes Bay grown syrah were more inclined to treatment in French oak and being given structural quality sensually associated with southern France than with South Australia.

So it was that New Zealand never tried to copy the huge, sweet centred, American oak slathered reds that Australia conjured from its Barossa Valley vineyards in the name of shiraz. With these styles now considered the epitome of poor taste in fine wine circles, it was a lucky escape from bottom-of-the-barrel marketing, and the irony is that many of Australia’s small, craft syrah producers are following closely on what New Zealand is doing with this variety.

Limmer’s Stonecroft has been joined by a veritable society of syrah producers in Hawkes Bay who have all gone down the elegant, firm and dry track, producing wines that are clearly marked by their often floral fragrant, but supple palates backed by fruit flavour density and, in the good vintages, by concentration. Te Mata Estate, Craggy Range, Trinity Hill, Bilancia, Te Awa have all produced notable wines from syrah, and now there is a newcomer, Kidnapper Cliffs.

Produced at the Te Awa winery from 17 selected hectares of Te Awa vineyards, the wine is an exercise in terroir-focused winemaking from the Gimblett Gravels sub region. With creative contributions from both Te Awa’s Ant Mackenzie and Dry River’s Neil McCallum it has enough Macs in the mix to have a Scottish flavour but the first effort from the 2009 vintage is pure, intense Hawkes Bay syrah. A new classic?