A New Breed of Syrah

Here in the United States, New Zealand wine sales were up nearly 20 percent in 2015. And while you might not know it from looking at American restaurants’ wine lists or retailers’ shelves, in New Zealand, Syrah is the latest craze.
At Stonyridge Vineyard on trendy Waiheke Island, I’m told the 2014 Pilgrim (a $70 Syrah-based blend) is sold out, just weeks after being released for sale only through the winery cellar door and restaurant.
Once a novelty, Syrah is increasingly viewed as a mainstay. It’s being produced in nearly every one of New Zealand’s winegrowing regions, including Sauvignon Central (Marlborough) and Pinot Noir-crazed Martinborough. There’s even a producer or two in Central Otago.
But Syrah’s stronghold is in Hawke’s Bay, where it thrives on gravel-laden expanses of former riverbeds in the Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa Triangle subregions.
Here, in a part of New Zealand that has spent decades trying to get Bordeaux varieties right, “Syrah is our most reliable ripener,” says Lauren Swift, winemaker for Ash Ridge Wines, located in Bridge Pa.
On top of that, says Hugh Crichton, winemaker for Vidal Estate, “It’s hard to get [Syrah] overripe, unless you let it shrivel.”
So while winemakers have a range of picking dates, Syrahs from Hawke’s Bay typically retain ample fresh-fruit character and plenty of varietal spice.
“The Triangle” has deeper topsoil than the Gimblett Gravels, yielding wines that offer soaring aromatics. Wines from the Gravels are often darker and more brooding.
“Bridge Pa has a bit more lushness, a bit more lifted fruit,” says Lorraine Leheny, as we sit among Bilancia’s hillside Syrah plantings that overlook the Gimblett Gravels. “Gravels is a tougher wine, so they make a good foil.”

The grapes from here on the hillside, where Leheny and her husband, Warren Gibson, first planted Syrah in 1998, go into their winery’s La Collina bottling, which has become one of New Zealand’s best wines.
Gibson is also winemaker for Trinity Hill, whose Homage bottling is La Collina’s closest rival, sometimes surpassing it. A common thread between those two wines is the use of a small portion of Viognier in most years.
“I’m not so obsessed with Viognier that I have to have it in there, but if it works, it works,” says Gibson.
That’s not the opinion of every Hawke’s Bay winemaker.
“I don’t like it at all,” says Tony Bish, senior winemaker at Sacred Hill. “Our Syrah is great. It doesn’t need Viognier.”
In Hawkes Bay, the 2013 and ’14 vintages are excellent for red wines. Most winemakers agree that the ’13s offer more structure and longevity, while the ’14s are flashier and more accessible.
“I prefer the ’14,” says Peter Cowley of Te Mata Estate. But even his 2013 Bullnose Syrah, off a vineyard planted to four clones in the Bridge Pa Triangle, did well enough in my blind tastings to make the Hawke’s Bay Half Dozen in this article (the 2014 has yet to arrive in the U.S.).
Opinions vary on the best Syrah clones, but the majority of them seem to echo that of Martin Pickering, Stonyridge’s wine production manager. “None of the new clones have been as good as the original ‘mass selection’ [MS] clone,” he says.
“If you’re going to have one clone, MS is the one to have,” says Bish. He says that MS offers the most density on the palate, while the others can add lift and fragrance.
In fact, although ENTAV clones 174 and 470 have been widely planted in recent years, and there’s another one known as the Chave clone, most of the country’s best Syrahs trace their lineage to the so-called MS clone.
Geoff Thorpe, managing director of Riversun Nursery, says MS may go back as far as James Busby, a Scottish immigrant credited with bringing grapevines to Australia in 1832 and New Zealand in 1833.
1Martinborough History
2A Hawke’s Bay Half Dozen
3Worth The Detour