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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.
2006 was an exceptional vintage and this release of la collina reflects the great season. As always, the fruit was hand picked and a small percentage of Viognier (around 3%) was included with the red fermentation. The consistency of the vineyard means that the winemaking from year to year is very similar.
The Syrah fruit was harvested in three phases during April and on one of these occasions a small percentage of Viognier was harvested in order to include the white fruit in the red ferment. The Viognier free run juice was pressed off separately for the varietal white wine and the remaining Viognier skins only were included in the ferment. The Viognier component is approximately 3%
The fruit was destemmed and fermentation was carried out in small open top vessels. The skins were hand plunged during fermentation. The wine was pressed off at dryness and malolactic fermentation occurred in barrel. The 2006 Syrah was in barrel for 18 months. We have reduced the amount of racking done while the wine is in barrel. Over the years we have determined that the wine seems to prefer little intervention whilst it is resting in barrel. The wine is monitored but generally left to its own devices. The winemaking philosophy is, and always has been, to preserve the very distinct vineyard character and fruit purity along with support from new but low impact French oak.
The wine was bottled in October 2007 and was released on October 1 2008
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