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. The subsoil type is sandstone/limestone which can be managed unirrigated in all but the driest of seasons. The site is frost free and due to the windy aspect has extremely low disease pressure.

Bunch and berry sizes are very small and the crop levels are self regulating due to harshness of the flowering conditions. Normal crop loading is less than 1 kg per vine. This is a truly unique site that expresses itself in the aromatics and textural qualities of the resulting wine. Provencal herbs (Thyme, Rosemary and Lavender) are continually being planted on the terraces for stability and aesthetics and nuances of these appear in the aromatics and flavour of the wine.

2004

The 2004 growing season was distinguished by moderate to cool temperatures and an extremely dry Autumn. The Syrah fruit was harvested in two phases during April. At both of these times 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 skins only were included in the ferment. The Viognier component is approximately 2%.

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 2004 Syrah was in barrel for 18 months; 100% new French Burgundy barrels. The wine was regularly and carefully racked and very gently aerated during aging. The winemaking philosophy is 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 December 2005 and released on July 1 2006.