Winemaker Notes
Deep magenta with an onyx-dark core, Bullnose ’18 has an immediate rich aroma of cinnamon, lavender, ultra-ripe raspberry and black cherry. Lush with plum and boysenberry, the palate has immense depth and is interwoven with black liquorice, spice and velvety chocolate tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has abundant peppery and spicy red-plum and berry aromas with a sheen of spice, graphite and chocolate. The palate has a very elegant, focused feel with bright red berries, plums and fine, taut tannins. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There was no 2017 released, but the 2018 Bullnose Syrah aims to make up for that, offering up wonderful fragrances on the nose—hints of violets and cracked pepper accent ripe cherries and plums. Medium-bodied and creamy-textured, with a sense of density and concentration on the palate, it finishes long, silky and elegant, with savory overtones of black olives. It comes mainly from Bridge Pa fruit, from a vineyard planted in 1990 and another in 2000, with a bit of Gimblett Gravels fruit as well.
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Wine Enthusiast
Te Mata’s premium Shiraz is a powerful and chiseled wine in need of more time in the bottle. Currently it shows ripe cherry fruit, peppery spice and quite a bit of high gloss oak influence. The palate is cinched in muscular tannins and lifted by quite a bit of acidity. At the moment the two are not in harmony, but it likely needs several more years before it all knits together. Drink 2023–2030.
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Decanter
A very modern take on Syrah which turns up the chocolate and cappuccino characters to create a rich and silky wine. There’s dark cherry and ripe raspberry fruit to balance the roasted coffee tannins with an acid spike. Extended skin contact and a warmish fermentation have given this depth and elegance.
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.