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This Week's Wine Review.
Vidal 2007 Hawkes Bay Syrah
Most people tend to think of white wines in summer, or maybe Rose,
as both can be served chilled. There are times though, when a glass
of red can be particularly enjoyable. This brings me to my choice of
wine this week, Vidal’s Hawkes Bay Syrah.
2007 proved to be a particularly good year for Syrah in the Hawkes
Bay, so I looked forward to trying it. Vidal sourced fruit
predominantly from their Gimblett Gravels vineyards. There alluvial
deposits of gravel, sand and stone combine with high temperatures to
create a low yielding and free draining environment for the grapes.
The remaining 7% of fruit came from a hillside vineyard on Roys
Hill. As usual, the grapes were harvested when they were judged to
have reached their optimum ripeness and were also harvested in
optimum condition.
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the vineyard, the grapes were destemmed then lightly crushed and
fermented in small batches. During the ferment, the must was
hand-plunged and pumped over on skins to extract desirable tannin
levels, colour and flavour. The wine was then pressed off and run to
barrel where it completed malolactic fermentation over the winter
and spring periods. It was allowed to rest in French oak for 18
months before being lightly egg-white fined and bottled.