Bilancia Trelinnoe Syrah 2020

Reviews

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 97/100 (7 March 2023). Fabulous aromas of brambleberries, peppercorns and crushed black pepper. Rose petal. Crushed stone. Medium to full body. Hints of dried meat and sandalwood. White pepper. Oyster shell. Refined. Better in a year or two. Drink or hold.

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 96+/100. The 2020 Trelinnoe Syrah was harvested post-lockdown during COVID-19, an interesting time that we lived through globally. On the nose, this is saturated with raspberry coulis and red licorice, pink peppercorns, graphite and black tea, rose petals and blood. It smells sumptuous and looks vibrant and almost light. I'm thinking supple. Yes. Uber fine, with a chalky, silky flow. This is a delicious wine. It's exactly what you'd hope for in medium-weight Syrah. It's perfectly ripe without a hint of anything over that. This is gorgeous wine. Seamless. Almost three years in barrel, with none new. The future is so bright here. I'm looking forward to seeing it again sometime.

Tasting Note:

Ripe, full fruit and complexity with little influence from oak, showing Hawke’s Bay spice, crushed stone and dark fruits. Despite it’s proximity to the la collina vineyard this wine exhibits a very different tannin structure and is more brooding in its youth.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: Red wine

Varietal: Syrah

Food match: steak, casserole, beaf. Aged fillet steak tartare, radish, free-range egg yolk, smoked miso mayo, crispy shallots, crouton or roasted red meats with a medley of vegetables including red and green peppers.

Vineyard: A single vineyard Syrah from Trelinnoe (tree-lin-o) Vineyard on Roys Hill, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, named for the owner’s his torical ties to Cornwall (= historial garden in Cornwall). This upper Roys Hill, north facing hillside vineyard is sandstone over limestone and is planted with the Mass Selection (MS) clone of Syrah.

Vintage 2020: 2020 was a spectacular vintage for Hawke’s Bay and this Syrah shows the beauty of that vintage.

Winemaking: The fruit was 100% hand-picked. It was destemmed and crushed to the fermentation vessel with around 20% of the fruit included as whole bunches. During fermentation the tank was gen tly pumped over once a day. The wine was pressed at dryness and then trans ferred to older oak post malolactic fer mentation. The 2020 Trelinnoe Syrah was bottled in February 2023, having spent almost three years in oak.

Alcohol: 13.5% vol

Wine style: dry

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: Contains sulfites.

Cellaring potential: 2030+.

Closure: Screwcap

Produced and bottled by: Bilancia Limited PO Box 2508 Hastings 4156 Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

You love Syrah? Browse the Syrah assortment here.