Babich Winemaker's Reserve Syrah 1999
Winemaker Notes
From their diverse vineyards to your table, Babich wines offer a direct connection to New Zealand, the beautiful country they call home. The love of the craft. Doing things by hand. And caring for the land. They’re all ingredients of Babich's slow, careful process in an ever-changing, always-on world. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
People thought Josip Babich was crazy back in 1912. Planting vines in remote New Zealand, then patiently making wine the difficult way – with vision, thoughtfulness, ingenuity, and true craft. That hard-working spirit is something that still runs deep in their veins today; and they'll keep ‘paying it forward’ for as long as they exist.
Babich will never stop striving to delight wine drinkers and make the everyday extraordinary – so you can taste the care that goes into their wines. From grape, to glass. Every time.
A relatively young but extremely promising wine producing country, New Zealand is widely recognized for its distinctive white wines made from the aromatic, Sauvignon blanc.
The world’s most southerly vineyards are found here, with significant climatic variation both between and within the warmer North Island and the cooler South Island. Overall, the climate is maritime, with plenty of rainfall, as well as abundant sunshine. Producers have almost unilaterally embraced cutting-edge winery technology, resulting in clean, high-quality New Zealand wines at every price point from wallet-friendly to premium.
Sauvignon blanc, known here for its trademark herbaceous character, is at its best in Marlborough but thrives throughout the nation, accounting for an overwhelming majority of the country’s exports. While this is indeed the country’s most planted and successful variety, it is certainly not the only New Zealand grape capable of delighting wine lovers.
Chardonnay is the second-most important white variety and takes on a supple texture with citrus and tropical fruit aromas in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, respectively. Pinot noir, second behind Sauvignon blanc in national production numbers, is at its best in Central Otago—the most southerly winegrowing region in the world! These New Zealand wines are known for bright and juicy red fruit. Taking cues from the wines of Alsace, aromatic varieties like Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer shine in Martinborough, while red wine Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have found success in Hawke’s Bay. Throughout New Zealand but especially in Marlborough, Pinot noir and Chardonnay are used to produce traditional method sparkling NZ wines.
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.”