Church Road Cuve Series Syrah

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Church Road Cuve Series

Hawke's Bay Syrah 2004

This Rhône-style Syrah was grown on the low vigour red metal soils of our Redstone Vineyard in the Ngatarawa Triangle district. Ripe fruit was hand harvested and sorted before being crushed to one of our French oak cuves, where fermentation was completed. After three weeks on skins, the wine was drained off and filled to new and one-year-old French oak barriques for maturation.

Winemaker's Notes

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Release date: June 2006
Variety: Syrah
Region: Redstone, Hawke's Bay

Description

A supple, medium-bodied red wine full of fragrant fruit and gamey complexity.

Colour: Deep, rich red.

Aromas: A core of dark berry fruit is overlaid with fragrant violet and spice characters, while savoury oak and gamey notes add complexity and richness.

Palate: Round and supple with soft ripe tannin and good length of both texture and flavour.

Serving Suggestions

Well suited to more savoury style game and meat dishes.

Cellaring

This wine should reward careful cellaring for up to six years or more from the vintage date. Over this time the primary berry fruit characters will diminish and be replaced by more complex flavours and aromas, while the palate will continue to soften.

Harvest

Vineyard Manager: Neil Watson

This was perhaps the best red wine vintage in recent years. The most important feature of 2004 vintage was the extended warm, dry autumn. This allowed us to pick fruit at full flavour ripeness, while low soil moisture levels ensured good concentration and intensity.

Brix at harvest: 22.5°

Winemaking

Winemakers: Chris Scott

The fruit was crushed to one of our French oak Cuves for fermentation at around 30° C. To gently extract colour and tannin from the skins, the juice was pumped over the cap three times a day. Aeration was used to encourage soft texture, colour stability and aromatic complexity. After three weeks the wine was drained off the skins and filled to oak barrels.

The wine remained in French oak barrels (60% new) for approximately 11 months. The oak has imparted savoury, toasty, slightly smoky complexity to the wine, while also enhancing the textural attributes of the wine.

Analysis

Alcohol: 13% by volume
Total acidity: 5 g/L as tartaric

Vintages

2004*

* currently available vintage(s)

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