Bilancia La Collina Syrah 2021

Reviews

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 98/100. The La Collina Syrah is floral on the nose, with lavender, rose petals, pomegranate pearls, fresh blood, graphite, black tea and umami/bone broth inflections. In the mouth, the wine is light as a feather, elongated and ethereal, spiced and fine. It flutters over a long, lingering finish that is layered with star anise and clove - layers that settle upon one another, fine as sheets of tissue paper. Be still, heart. ... The La Collina Syrah is without a doubt, New Zealand's greatest Syrah, and a gift to the wine world. If it is new to you, make it not so. It ages with grace and ease and will only repay careful cellaring with years of joy in the future. Go slow and gentle.

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 97/100 & #10 Top 100 Wines of New Zealand 2023. Aromas of smoked meat, brambleberry, oyster shell, and bark. Some black tea leaf too. Full-bodied and chewy with ultra-fine tannins. White pepper. Dried lavender. Silky-textured with a long finish. Drinkable but better in a year or two.

Bob Campbell, MW (The Real Review): 97/100 & Best Hawke's Bay Syrah 2021 (out of 44) & Wine of the Week. Intense, firmly structured, fine-grained syrah with cassis, grape stems, spice/anise/cedar, tobacco and dark chocolate. Youthful wine with obvious cellaring potential. An outstanding syrah that provides a benchmark for others to follow. Ageing: now to 2040.

Stephen Wong MW (The Real Review): 97/100. Warren Gibson and Lorraine Leheny of Bilancia are likely best known for their absolutely phenomenal La Collina Syrah, which has been highlighted often and is on almost every list of great New Zealand syrah. That wine is indisputably great, garnering a score of 97 from both Bob Campbell MW and myself separately.

David Walker Bell, WineFolio with Nigel Cottle und Curt Thomas: The WineFolio Top 10 NZ Syrahs - #1 Syrah. Starts with a calm classic nose that is very varietal. A hint of leafy green, then redcurrant, cranberry, damson, white wood smoke and rose petals. A simple, subtle presentation – not overly extracted or unnecessarily complex. It is very youthful, with a lithe balance, but there are sinewy tannins and plenty of power in the body.

Tasting Note:

This wine boasts an intense and powerful aromas of blackberries, plums, blackcurrants, black pepper, liquorice and spice notes. The palate is equally impressive, with concentrated fruit flavors, earth and power, showcasing a taut, youthful, and high-energy character. The ripe tannins add layers of texture to an already impressive mouthfeel. The wine's acidity provides contrast to the core fruit flavors, resulting in a wine with excellent length, shape, and form.

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: La Collina, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The la collina vineyard is a steep, terraced and incline planted hillside vineyard on the North/ Northwest facing slopes of Roys Hill, west of Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The hillside is protected from the cooling effects of the southerly and southwesterly winds and during the growing season is bathed in sunshine. The terraces are planted to Syrah whilst the lowers slopes and Gravels flat are planted to Chardonnay and eight rows of Viognier/Marsanne/Roussanne.

Winemaker Warren Gibson about the vintage: The 2021 la collina is the third in a great trio of vintages. The weather conditions at our site, Roy’s Hill in Hawke’s Bay, were close to perfect throughout the season. The main distinguishing features in comparison to the two previous seasons was that 2021 was quite an early starting harvest, slightly contradictory in that it was also not very warm. There were very few days above 30°C all season. The sugars tended to be higher than average, hence alcohols too. The cooler season also kept acidities naturally higher. As a generalisation, it is a vintage highlighting Chardonnay and Syrah. The Syrahs should show the trademark Hawkes Bay spice, red fruit and liquorice with beautiful natural acidity and purity along with being particularly age-worthy. Seasons that we remember being most like 2021 would be 2010 and 2004, with 2021 perhaps resulting in better wines than both those previous.

Winemaking: Hand picked over two days in April. Two deliberately and distinctly different fermentations from separated aspects/areas of the hillside - 100 % whole cluster including some Viognier (less than 2%) and 100% de-stemmed Syrah. Fermentations were in open top vessels with twice daily plunging. Maceration times are relatively short post alcoholic fermentation, generally 12-14 days total. Malo-lactic concurrent with the yeast fermentation and either finishing in tank or tailing off after going to barrel. 100% aged for 20 months in French burgundy style barrique, approximately 50% new. The barrels have been curated/manufactured to suit the fruit and style from our particular site. No racking, no finings, one filtration for clarity.

Alcohol: 13.5% vol

Wine style: dry

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: Contains sulfites.

Cellaring potential: 2031+.

Closure: Screwcap

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

Imported and distributed by: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany

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