Winemaker Notes
Each vintage of La Collina is a snapshot of the vineyard in that year and no two vintages will ever be exactly the same. The 2020 La Collina is again a great example of Hawke's Bay Syrah; spice, brambly fruit and red liquorice with structure, length and drinkability but still with the ability to age.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A beautifully perfumed nose of white and black pepper, wet stone, grilled meat, toasted rosemary and grilled plum. Medium-bodied with silky, fruit-soaked tannins. The palate takes off, displaying a incredible amount of spicy complexity. Pepper, paprika, clove, coriander. It keeps going. Tight structure keeps everything wonderfully in line. Layered, dynamic and delicious. Superb. Best from 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 La Collina Syrah is far bloodier and more savory than the 2021 tasted beside it, and it shows the advantage that we as drinkers have when selecting which wines to drink; we have choice. This is balanced, placid, sure, mineral and fine, shaped by a splay of ferruginous tannins through the finish. It drags across the palate and continues long after the wine has gone, but it is quiet ... and that is a wonderful thing. It has at once the piercing intensity and focus of the song of a bellbird, but equally, it reveals expanse and depth in the kaleidoscope of rose petals, graphite, river stones and dried herbs. Superstar. Drink it now or regret it forever—the wines age gracefully and long, but the trouble with them is that they taste so great as young wines. Your call. 1
Rating: 97+ -
Vinous
This 2020 Syrah La Collina is for Pinot Noir lovers with its delicately handled, fragrant personality. A national lockdown was invoked in New Zealand before the grapes were harvested and the parcel had to be picked over two days by ‘bubbles’, including family groups, who did not come into contact with each other during the pick. It is a delightful, perfumed style, scented with violets while pure fruit and elegant oak-derived spices sit under high notes of herbs from rosemary to mint. While 60% of the wine was matured in new oak, you wouldn't guess it, such is its integration. It is reined in and light on its feet, but the wine has substance, soaking up that oak and enabling the fruit to shine.
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.