In 2021, Church Road chief winemaker Chris Scott became the only winemaker to win the prestigious ‘New Zealand Winemaker of the Year’ award for a fourth time at the Winestate Wine of the Year Awards. This series of accolades combined with the increasing global acknowledgement of Hawke’s Bay as a world-class syrah- producing region, on top of the superb vintage Hawke’s Bay experienced in 2019, makes this wine quite the triple treat. The growing season in 2019 was dry from after Christmas 2018 until harvest was complete. When this happens it gives the viticulture team the luxury of time, which allows perfect grape ripening along with the ability to pick without the pressure of bad weather looming.

Church Road Grand Reserve wines are not single vineyard wines. This means that the grapes can be picked from select parcels across the best vineyards in Hawke’s Bay. The quality of these wines is such that at Church Road they are affectionately referred to as ‘Baby Tom’, which is high praise indeed, especially when available at a fraction of the price of the illustrious Tom itself.

It is described by our judges as gorgeous, bright and youthful with soft cherry and dark spice aromas on the nose and through into the palate. The oak has been beautifully integrated with subtle spice flavours against well-handled fruit. Fleshy yet silky, this is an expertly crafted elegant and nuanced syrah that will keep delivering for some time. A quiet yet powerful example of New Zealand syrah.