Wednesday Wines – Episode 295 – Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintage Selection 2023
It is always great to receive the annual Gimblett Gravels Vintage Selection, and in the 2023 vintage, six bottles (not 12 as has been the case since Release 1 in 2008) arrived on my doorstep, and two of the collection really hit the spot with my palate. While these wines are new releases, they ought to make it to our shores before too long.
2023 Elephant Hill, Stone Syrah, Gimblett Gravels, North Island, New Zealand
Hugh Crichton is a terrific winemaker, and his touch with Syrah has been captivating my palate for a couple of decades! In order to get a handle on this wine, Corney & Barrow sells the 2020 vintage for £37.50, so you have an idea of where it sits in the Syrah scheme of things. With 4% Viognier on board, it certainly looks towards the Northern Rhône more than any other international Syrah region for guidance. It spends 22 months in French oak, of which 40% was new. And, most importantly, it tips the scales at a trim 13.5% alcohol. GG Syrahs often have a rigidity to them that I find appealing. They look more to the soil than the sun, and this wine is no exception. There is tension here, and with genuine momentum on the palate, the dark, sleek, cocoa- and iodine-kissed fruit is edgy, refreshing, and mouth-watering. It is a Syrah missile that hits its intended target with unwavering accuracy. Despite its youth, there are moments of juiciness that make it drinkable now, and although you might expect tannins to loom and pull the rug from under the fruit, they sit back keeping a watchful eye without cramping this wine’s style. This is certainly the best ‘Stone Syrah’ I have tasted, and if the price remains steady, this wine ought to join carefully selected St-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, and Cornas in one’s collection not only because of the obvious value, but also because I feel it rivals many a modern Côte-Rôtie, and this makes it a steal! 18.5/20 (Drink 2027 – 2035)
2023 Squawking Magpie, The Chatterer Merlot Cabernet Malbec, Gimblett Gravels, North Island, New Zealand
Like the wine above, the 2020 vintage of this wine is available in the UK. I have found a merchant, Winestore Eccleston, who sells it for £16.50. I wonder if this is a typo or perhaps another cuvée; either way, from the four blended reds and two Syrahs in this selection, this wine stood tall in the non-Syrah camp, and if it ended up being double the price by the time it made it to the UK, I wouldn’t quibble. Leading with 64% Merlot, and embellished with 22% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Malbec, everything about this wine is carefully considered. The new oak portion is only 10% and the alcohol weighs in at 13.5%. Winemaker Jenny Dobson has calmed all of the threads in this garment such that they hang together with uncommon grace. Once again, there is mineral tension, but, by comparison with the other wines in the set, it is heightened, along with the pristine fruit, and not dampened by ponderous oak or extraction. There are only a handful of Merlots in the Southern Hemisphere with this wine’s timbre. Like the Elephant, this Magpie is nearly drinking, with a bright future ahead of it. Congrats, Jenny – this is a beauty. And there you have it – the Animal Kingdom takes top honours in the Gravels this year! 18.5/20 (Drinking 2027 – 2038)