Trinity Hill Homage Syrah 2010
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Enjoy this wine with lamb or game.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The wine by which all other top-tier New Zealand syrah wines have always been judged, this has impressive depth and ripeness, tapping into a spectrum of concentrated dark and red fruits more deeply and more profoundly than most. It is bathed in Moroccan spice and pepper, and a decent serve of toasty oak that is easily subsumed. The palate scoops deep and wide, delivering luscious, ripe dark berry, pomegranate and plum fruit flavor, plus licorice and spice. Mouth-coating tannins hold the finish long. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Perennially one of New Zealand’s top Syrahs, this full-bodied, creamy-textured wine finishes long and velvety. The black olives, espresso and cracked peppercorns on the nose are marvelously varietally true, while the palate features those dark fruit notes and a moderate dose of dried spices. Drink now–2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2010 Homage Gimblett Gravels Syrah is a little closed, with notes of blueberries and plums plus hints of allspice, chocolate and toast. Medium to full-bodied, it gives a good core of mid-palate flesh supported by medium to high acid and a medium to firm level of rounded tannins, going savory / earthy in the long finish. Drink it now to 2018+.
Other Vintages
2016-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Wine &
Spirits -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Trinity hill’s story began in 1987 when Winemaker John Hancock met Robert and Robyn Wilson in their London restaurant Bleeding Heart. Over a bottle of John’s award-winning Chardonnay, the concept of a Hawke’s Bay winery was born. They were convinced they could produce world-class wines in this region of New Zealand.
They also recognized the outstanding potential of Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district and in 1993 Trinity Hill became one of the region’s early pioneers, planting grape vines on a barren plot on the former bed of the Ngaruroro River. This 18-hectare vineyard is now known as the Gimblett Estate Vineyard. By 2001, The Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association was set up with 34 wineries and winegrowers from a “terroir”-defined area of the old Ngaruroro Riverbed. Trinity Hill was and remains a founding member.
Trinity Hill has superb vineyard sites and the winemaking skills to ensure that they can achieve their aims of crafting some of the world’s great wines. A philosophy of “Quality rather than Quantity” is important. Controlled yields ensure the intensity of flavor and elegant styles for which Trinity Hill is renowned.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.