BILANCIA TRELINNOE SYRAH 2020

Winery notes (2020 Vintage)
"A single vineyard Syrah from Trelinnoe (tree-lin-o) Vineyard on Roys Hill named for the owner’s historical ties to Cornwall. Trelinnoe Vineyard Syrah is a part of our project to highlight some of the most unique, small, single vineyards in Hawke’s Bay. This upper Roys Hill, north facing hillside vineyard is sandstone over limestone and is planted with the Mass Selection (MS) clone of Syrah.

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 gently pumped over once a day. The wine was pressed at dryness and then transferred to older oak post malolactic fer mentation. The 2020 Trelinnoe Syrah was bottled in February 2023, having spent almost three years in oak.

2020 was a spectacular vintage for Hawke’s Bay and this Syrah shows the beauty of that vintage. Ripe, full fruit and complexity with little influence from oak, showing Hawke’s Bay spice 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."

97/100 JamesSuckling.com (2020 Vintage)
"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."

5 Stars & 97/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review (2020 Vintage)
"Dense, concentrated wine with plum, savoury/tobacco, black pepper, baked earth and mocha flavours. Delicious now but should become even more complex and integrated with bottle age. Serious syrah."

96+/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, Wine Advocate, December 2023 (2020 Vintage)
"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. 35% whole bunch."

96/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, June 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"Red fruits, paprika, exotic, liquorice, peppery too. Melting tannin, stony, plenty of juicy acidity, Dusty, aniseedy and very long. Such a distinct wine. Superb."

94/100 Decanter UK, June 2023 (2020 Vintage)
"Very ripe blackberry fruit aromas, with subtle black cherry, bramble and meatiness with vanilla spice overtones. The palate is rounded and juicy with dark black olive and plum. Decanting is a must."