Juicy and voluptuous. Morello cherries and rose petal perfume with a hint of allspice and fresh garden thyme.
Bright and delicate with an intensely long aromatic finish
THE VINTAGE
2023 was a very intense and challenging season! Hawke’s Bay saw a very wet growing season leading to intense canopy growth in the vines. This challenging growing season was completely surpassed by cyclone Gabrielle which completely engulfed Hawke’s Bay in early February as we were preparing for harvest. This made for an extremely difficult start to harvest until we were blessed by an extended period of dry weather for a Hawke’s Bay Indian Summer leading to some great fruit quality in later varieties. 2023 shows great aromatics, crispness and a marked delicacy in the wines.
Saorsa
Syrah/Shiraz
Syrah and Shiraz are two different names for the same red wine grape (and wines made from that grape). “Syrah” is what it's called in France’s Rhône Valley, where it is the main red wine grape of the Northern Rhône and a blending grape in the Southern Rhône. “Shiraz” is what winemakers in Australia typically call it.
Over time, the use of Shiraz or Syrah has taken on more meaning, and producers might choose one name or the other to indicate the style of their wine. A winemaker might bottle a “Shiraz” to indicate they made a rich, lush, riper, more fruit-forward wine in the Australian spirit. Or they might instead call their wine “Syrah” to indicate a more Old World– or leaner style of wine. Unfortunately, these terms can be used inconsistently.
As far as the link to Persia, Shiraz is the name of the capital in the Fars province, and there’s evidence that the earliest wines were made in that part of the world. For a long time it was believed that cuttings from Persia made their way to France’s Rhône region, and Syrah might have hailed from Persia, but DNA testing proved that Syrah/Shiraz is indigenous to France.