Te Mata Estate Bullnose Hawke's Bay Syrah 2020

Te Mata Estate Bullnose Hawke's Bay Syrah 2020"Deep, purple tinted syrah with a wonderfully fine grained, perfectly pitched texture. Flavours include cassis, plum, dark berries, anise, black pepper, floral and red rose together with spicy oak. A very impressive wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Jan 2022 "This is brimming with gorgeous aromas of Black Doris plum, violet, warm spice and toasted almond on the nose, leading to a concentrated palate offering rich texture and plush

"Deep, purple-tinted syrah with a wonderfully fine-grained, perfectly pitched texture. Flavours include cassis, plum, dark berries, anise, black pepper, floral and red rose together with spicy oak. A very impressive wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Jan 2022

"This is brimming with gorgeous aromas of Black Doris plum, violet, warm spice and toasted almond on the nose, leading to a concentrated palate offering rich texture and plush mouthfeel. It’s powerful and imposing while remaining gracious and captivating, beautifully framed by fine grainy tannins, finishing persistent and immensely satisfying. Best: 2024 to 2040" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Feb 2022

"This is a great Bullnose, Dark and highly perfumed, it is full-bodied, with youthful, beautifully ripe blackcurrant, plum and black-pepper flavours, showing impressive freshness and density, and a backbone of supple, fine-grained tannins" Michael Cooper, Listener Magazine, Feb 2022

A luminous deep magenta, Bullnose Syrah ’20 is immediately floral with fresh raspberry, black-cherry syrup, spiced plums and oriental peonies, all bursting from the glass. There’s cinnamon, nutmeg and earth, with mineral, ripe boysenberry and black berry-fruit on the palate adding presence and sustained, subtle power. Fine-grained tannins carry the palate on and on. Luxurious. Resplendent. Bullnose Syrah’ 20 is our most beautiful Bullnose. Bullnose ’20 is closed with a Diam cork, allowing continued evolution in bottle for 15 years from harvest.

Separate parcels of fully ripened syrah grapes were hand harvested from Te Mata Estate’s Bullnose, Hotspur and Isosceles Vineyards between 26 and 30 March 2020.

The individual lots were each destemmed and given a traditional warm-plunged fermentation. The resulting wines underwent extended maceration on skins before pressing and then a secondary malolactic fermentation. The separate wines were then run to a mixture of new and seasoned French oak barriques for 15 months’ maturation. During this time, they were regularly topped and racked, before blending and then bottling in December 2021.

The wine is named Bullnose after an early Morris Cowley car, which was nicknamed Bullnose due to its distinctive radiator. The bull emblem that appears on the wine label is drawn from the car’s radiator crest.