Craggy Range Syrah 2021 (Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay)
There are few New Zealand wine lovers who don’t know of Craggy Range. The brand, now 31 years young, was started by Terry and Mary Peabody in 1993. Their wish was to find a place so special from which remarkable wines would come that it would create not just a winery, but a legacy. After an initial search for land through Europe, the USA and Australia, the Peabodys found New Zealand, and more specifically Hawke’s Bay and yet more specifically again, the Gimblett Gravels sub-region. Here with help from locals and a belief that anything was possible, the legacy began with plantings of syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon in the wonderful alluvial soils for which this sub-region is famous.
Family patriarch Terry Peabody has cemented his commitment to family and to the Craggy Range legacy by establishing a 1000-year trust that ensures the winery can never be sold. That’s good news for lovers of fantastic New Zealand syrah as it’s clear that the Craggy Range brand, and the wines that put them on the map, aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
That’s great news when you taste a wine such as this which is deeply coloured and instantly attractive in the glass. The nose is plush and ripe with dark and purple fruit, hints of violets and subtle spice aromas. The palate is complex and well concentrated with bold tannins well integrated with plenty of weight, lovely harmony and fantastic length.