Craggy Range Vineyard
LE SOL GIMBLETT GRAVELS 75CL 13.5%
LE SOL GIMBLETT GRAVELS 75CL 13.5%
Couldn't load pickup availability
The Craggy Range Le Sol, translates from French as "the soil" is Syrah from the renowned Gimblett Gravels viticultural appellation of Hawkes Bay, with its gravelly soils attracting the sun in summer and insulating the vines in winter.
The vines are planted in the stoniest parts of the vineyard to a heritage clone of Syrah brought to New Zealand in the 1840s. The Syrah grapes were all hand harvested and meticulously sorted. Fermentation took place in open top French oak vats and maturation lasted for 17 months in a combination of French and Austrian oak barriques and puncheons, of which 32% were new.
The Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah has plentiful sweet aromas of boysenberry and blueberry aromas leading to a beautifully structured palate, with seamless tannins and wonderful fruit intensity.
100% Syrah, using 65% whole bunches in the fermentation, aged for 17 months in French oak barriques (38% new). Deep and dark with a purple hue. The nose is flush with mulberry, violets, lavender and cocoa.
The palate, whilst obviously young and vibrant with taut tannins, is complex, deep and intoxicating - so much dark, black fruit, changing with every mouthfeel. The perfect match for braised beef and strong blue cheese.
Intensively hand managed, the grapes reveal a deep dark Syrah with purple hues, this is one of New Zealands best loved icon wines, with its inky dark colour, an intense perfume of violets, black pepper spice and blackcurrant that continues on the concentrated palate; this is a great bottle.
More savoury spice and game character will develop with time in cellar. Dense, intense and complex syrah that combines power and finesse. A deep, dark wine with a heady perfume and dark berry, plum, violet and pepper-spice flavours. Clearly a wine worth cellaring, although it is deliciously drinkable now.
Date Tasted: March 2021; Rating: 99 Points; Bob Campbell MW; The Real Review Drinking Window; 2021 - 2035
Share
