For this, the first ever release of a TOM syrah, 100% of the fruit was sourced from the Redstone vineyard inside the Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District, New Zealand’s newest ‘official’ wine region. A couple of swirls in the glass reveals elegant white pepper, fresh blackberry, violet and vanilla alongside exceptionally buoyant layers of concentrated plum, finely-tuned, cocoa and charred, smoky characters. Reduced to just one bunch per shoot (when the norm for syrah is 2-3 bunches per shoot), every bunch has the ‘shoulders’ chopped off to leave every bunch untangled and free from disease pressure. This also means 60-70% of the crop actually ends up on the ground. It’s crazy, gorgeous stuff that’ll grow more graceful over the coming decade.
