Trinity Hill Homage Syrah 2014
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James
Suckling -
Wine &
Spirits -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Enjoy this wine with lamb or game.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A beautifully articulated edition of this Hawke's Bay syrah that is loaded with potential. It's a strong vintage that has been cleverly crafted into a thoroughbred wine, packed with spicy and complex interest on the nose: blackberries, cloves, anise, pepper, some dark stony notes and crushed purple flowers. The palate builds smoothly in layers of succulently flavorsome, fine tannins that deliver a seamless array of dark-plum and blackberry flavors. Still frisky and full of youthful, snappy appeal. Best from 2020.
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Wine & Spirits
John Hancock, a founding partner in Trinity Hill, worked harvest with Gérard Jaboulet in the Rhône in 1996. Jaboulet gave him syrah cuttings from La Chapelle, and viognier cuttings from Les Jumelles, which Hancock propagated and planted in Gimblett Gravels, forming the basis of his top wine. Warren Gibson made this 2014, fermenting 40 percent of the lot as whole clusters, with foot treading. It’s the ninth release of Homage, a substantial syrah leavened by the black peppercorn spice of viognier even as it blankets the palate with purple-fruited intensity. The wine’s precision shows as it opens with air, gaining shape and structure. Built to cellar.
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Wine Spectator
Rich, black pepper-laced notes of wild blackberry are thick and dense, with plenty of verve and intensity on the finish, where a hint of black tea comes in. Drink now through 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2014 Homage Syrah is profoundly scented of black currants, black plums and blueberries with underlying suggestions of Sichuan pepper, Indian spices, cloves, anise and violets. Medium bodied and elegantly styled in the mouth, it has a solid frame of chewy tannins and lively acid supporting the intense black berry and exotic spice flavors, finishing with great persistence.
Other Vintages
2016-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Trinity hill’s story began in 1987 when Winemaker John Hancock met Robert and Robyn Wilson in their London restaurant Bleeding Heart. Over a bottle of John’s award-winning Chardonnay, the concept of a Hawke’s Bay winery was born. They were convinced they could produce world-class wines in this region of New Zealand.
They also recognized the outstanding potential of Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district and in 1993 Trinity Hill became one of the region’s early pioneers, planting grape vines on a barren plot on the former bed of the Ngaruroro River. This 18-hectare vineyard is now known as the Gimblett Estate Vineyard. By 2001, The Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association was set up with 34 wineries and winegrowers from a “terroir”-defined area of the old Ngaruroro Riverbed. Trinity Hill was and remains a founding member.
Trinity Hill has superb vineyard sites and the winemaking skills to ensure that they can achieve their aims of crafting some of the world’s great wines. A philosophy of “Quality rather than Quantity” is important. Controlled yields ensure the intensity of flavor and elegant styles for which Trinity Hill is renowned.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.