2021 Le Sol Syrah

Full screwcapped bottle all of 1,568 g although Julian Grounds claimed bottles were being lightweighted when I visited there in February 2023. Barrel selection of 20-year-old Syrah vines (MS, Bailey's, All Saints clones) on Craggy's stoniest river-derived gravel on silt were picked 30 March to 8 April. Aged 17 months in French and Austrian oak (32% new). Fresh, recognisably Syrah nose. Red-fruit flavours with the lightest of black-pepper notes. Vigorous and clean – quite muscular and long but still pretty youthful. It needs to take on a bit more flesh but it certainly isn't over-oaked. (JR)

100% Syrah, yield 28 hl/ha. Fermented (27% whole bunch) with indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak cuves. Matured for 17 months in French and Austrian oak barriques and puncheons (32% new). TA 5.3 g/l, pH 3.62, RS 0 g/l. Fantastic nose; highly fragrant and full of violets, cherry blossom and white pepper. The palate is surprisingly silky and sweet given the nose, perhaps not delivering the finesse and lift expected. Soft, ultra-fine tannins frame a core of Parma violets and polished cherries. Perhaps needing a year to reveal its personality on the palate. (TP)

Structured and concentrated, this opens with the vibrant aromatics of Syrah, full of freshly cut herbs, violet flowers, aniseed and fennel, with raspberry, liqourice, earth, and gently smoked white pepper. Delicate and sappy with a core of power that draws out the flavours, totally delicious. I would give this a little bottle age to really make the most of the complexity. 27% whole bunch winemaking, native yeast fermentation, bottled unfined, very light filtration, 3.62ph, 32% new oak. Director David T Peabody, chief winemaker Julian Grounds. From the Gimblett Gravels area of Hawkes Bay.