Raising a glass in tribute to Tom
Award-winning Church Road winemaker, Chris Scott, has added a syrah to the winery’s coveted range of limited edition TOM wines.
To spittoon or not to spittoon? That was the question at a recent tasting of Church Road Winery’s new TOM range, including winemaker Chris Scott’s latest triumph: Church Road TOM Syrah 2013. The difficulty with tasting wine this good is that you really don’t want to spit it out, though spitting is the proper thing to do (as elegantly as one can manage of course) after you’ve sniffed, swirled and taken a mouthful of the carefully crafted liquid in your glass.
Luckily, there was plenty more to come at a special celebration dinner held at Wharekauhau Country Estate in Palliser Bay, so I did use the spittoon, well, a little bit.
Twenty years ago, Church Road Chardonnay was the first wine I fell in love with. Later, when living in London, a bottle was produced at a dinner and I remember going into raptures over it; hankering after New Zealand wine, and Church Road Chardonnay in particular. Back then it was hard to find New Zealand wine in London. Of course, today it’s a different story.
On my return to New Zealand I made the pilgrimage to Church Road Winery in Hawke’s Bay to taste some more and discovered that the winery also produced great reds and was founded by New Zealand’s father of red wine, Tom McDonald (who was awarded an OBE in 1974 for his contribution to the New Zealand wine industry).
McDonald’s goal was to make red wine of the highest quality. Back in the 1920s, when he began work at Taradale Vineyards, the wine produced was mostly fortified styles, such as sherry and port. His efforts paid off with a series of benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the 1960s. McDonald’s wines were recognised as so excitingly superior to anything else in the country at the time that each vintage was snapped up by wine lovers.
The vineyard’s current winemaker, Chris Scott, has been carrying on that tradition as the crafter of Church Road’s award-winning wines including the TOM range, named in honour of Tom McDonald. Using only the best fruit, which is hand-picked, TOM Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and Syrah are only produced in exceptional years and 2013 was an exceptional year, says Scott.
“Syrah is not a variety Tom McDonald would have traditionally grown. He was very much a pioneer of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon but we believe he would have approved,” says Scott, of the inaugural release of the TOM Syrah 2013 vintage.
It’s a small release for the Syrah, picked to sell out quickly even at $200 a bottle, because the first bottling only filled 150 cases. Also special is that each bottle of TOM wine is individually numbered and hand-finished.
If you miss out on a bottle of TOM Syrah or don’t want to wait for the recommended cellaring time (it’s best to drink from 2017 to 2028), the winery’s Church Road, McDonald Series and Grand Reserve syrahs will undoubtedly satisfy the palate. The McDonald Series Syrah 2013 won the prestigious Air New Zealand Champion Wine of the Show Trophy. The 2014 vintage had a hard act to follow but the growing season delivered another exceptional vintage.
“Syrah ripened faster than 2013 and rainfall over the all-important harvest period was very low. The result was perfectly ripe fruit harvested in exceptional condition producing fragrant, concentrated and seductively textured syrah,” Scott says.
“Great Hawke’s Bay Syrah demonstrates warmth and restrained power on the palate, exhibiting aromatic intensity with rich, dark bramble, blueberry and plum – overlaid with aromas of violets, roses, pepper and spice, with a freshness and vibrancy of fruit expression that sets them apart.”
The grape variety, originally from France’s Northern Rhône Valley, has thrived in the hot and stony conditions of Church Road’s Redstone vineyard (the winery’s first syrah vintage was in 2004).
Church Road is also committed to sustainable winemaking in New Zealand. The principles of sustainable winemaking were developed in Hawke’s Bay by a group including two members of the Church Road team (now known as Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand). On the Redstone Vineyard, situated on the Bridge Pa Triangle, plants like oats and mustard are used instead of fertilisers to boost nitrogen and organic matter in the soil. Chicory competes with the vines for moisture and nutrients, resulting in more intensely flavoured grapes.
“Syrah is a wine style that’s becoming increasingly important in Hawke’s Bay and because it’s performing so well it’s getting a lot of attention both locally and internationally,” says Scott. “When you consider Syrah is about two and a half per cent of Hawke’s Bay grape plantings, which amounts to about one and a half per cent of all the grape planted in the whole country, it's incredible when you think about the amount of attention and number of awards it gets.”