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Red Wine
 

Vidal Reserve Series Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2009

This week's wine review is of another wine in Vidal's new reserve series. This week I have chosen the 2009 Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels region of the Hawkes Bay. More specifically the fruit for this wine was grown in the Omahu Gravels and Twyford Gravels vineyards.

Both vineyards have relatively recent alluvial deposits of gravel with varying degrees of silt and sand. These naturally free draining, low vigour sites experienced a hot, dry summer in 2009, perfect for ripening red grapes.

At the winery, the grapes were destemmed, lightly crushed and fermented in small individual batches. During the ferment, the must hand plunged and pumped over the skins for colour stability, tannin extraction and maximum flavour extraction. The wine was then pressed off and run to barrel to undertake malolactic fermentation over winter and spring. The wine rested in French Oak for 20 months before being egg white fine, filtered and bottled.

I found the 2009 Vidal Reserve Series Gimblett Gravels Syrah to have wonderful aromas of cherry, spice, berries and cracked pepper. On the palate, I also found ripe black cherry flavours combined well with pepper blackberry, toasty oak and spice to produce a well balanced, medium bodied wine with silky tannins.

It is a wine that will be a great accompaniment for a gourmet pizza or char grilled steak. It is drinking well now but will continue to develop over the next five years.

Reviewed by Stephen Clark (8/8/2011)

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