Tasting Note:
The 2024 la collina Syrah is a spectacular example of Hawke's Bay hillside Syrah, offering vibrant aromas of spice, brambly fruit, and dark berries. On the palate, it exhibits exceptional structure, impressive length, and velvety tannins that yield immediate drinkability alongside immense cellaring potential. A deeply complex and harmonious wine showing tremendous energy and poise.
Aromas and flavours:
Reviews
Reviews for Bilancia La Collina Syrah 2024:
Erin Larkin
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2024 la collina Syrah is 100% whole-bunch fruit, which is dependent on the year, but this 2024 season was well suited to it. Aromatically, there's raw cocoa, fresh blood, pomegranate molasses, star anise, freshly mowed fennel, crushed rocks, licorice, lavender, raspberry and black tea, with pastrami and hung deli meat lace the edges. Gosh, I love this wine. On the medium-bodied palate, the wine is shaped by ductile, chalky tannins, which serve to drag out the flavor through the long finish. This is a spectacular wine. It's truly great, and not just in a Hawke's Bay context, nor merely a New Zealand context but truly great in a global Syrah context. This is a superb example. I love it.
Dave Brookes
Halliday Wine Companion
Warren Gibson and Lorraine Leheny are two of my favourite folks in the NZ wine industry. They also happen to make my favourite wine from their epic, impeccably farmed, terraced vineyard called La Collina, which overlooks the Gimblett Gravels. There is 100% whole-bunch fruit in the '24 vintage, and the wine is singing. Damson plum, dark cherry, cocoa nibs, dried blood orange, citrus blossom, fennel tops, dried meats, cold tea, souk-like spice and more distant tones of crushed rock, graphite and black pepper. Perfectly weighted, with impeccable balance and flow. Mid-weighted, with stunning fruit and kinetic, powdery tannins that show elasticity, like peering back at your footprints on wet sand and watching them slowly disappear. It is just wonderful. Bravo.
James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com
Beautifully perfumed nose of freshly ground black pepper, cured meat, blue flowers, blood oranges, cherries and crushed stones. The impressive complexity and tension on the palate come with elegance and ease, unfolding with crushed berries, paprika, orange peel and savory, mineral nuances. Very energetic and dynamic. Drink or hold.
Additional information
Type: Red wine
Varietal: 100% Syrah
Food match: Aged fillet steak tartare, roasted red meats with a medley of vegetables, beef casseroles, or venison dishes.
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 Roy's Hill, west of Hastings[cite: 3]. The hillside is protected from cooling southerly and southwesterly winds and receives exceptional sunshine throughout the growing season.
The 2024 Vintage: The 2024 growing season in Hawke's Bay was a joy following the trickier conditions of 2022 and 2023. While crop levels were low across all varieties, the fruit was hand-harvested in perfect condition. The outstanding quality of the grapes permitted 100% whole-bunch fermentation, capturing the pure vibrancy and excitement of hillside-grown Syrah.
Winemaking: Hand-picked in pristine condition, allowing for 100% whole-bunch fermentation. Fermentation took place in open-top vessels. The wine was pressed at dryness and transferred to French oak barriques for élevage before bottling.
Alcohol: 13% vol
Wine style: dry
Bottle size: 0.75l
Notice: Contains sulfites.
Cellaring potential: 15–20 years (2039–2044+).
Closure: Screwcap
Nutritional Information
| Nutritional Information per 100 ml |
| Energy |
314 kJ (76 kcal) |
| Fat |
0 g |
| of which saturate |
0 g |
| Carbohydrates |
0.7 g |
| of which Sugars |
0 g |
| Protein |
0 g |
| Salt |
0 g |
Ingredients: Raw materials: Grapes, Preservatives: Sulphur dioxide (E 220), Packaging gases: Nitrogen.
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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