De La Terre Syrah 2022

De La Terre Syrah comes from Hawke's Bay's only earth-brick winery, a small, hands-on operation on the Napier-Taihape Road run by Tony and Kaye Prichard. Tony trained under consultants from Bordeaux's Domaine Cordier while at Church Road, and that French red-winemaking grounding shows here: it's a spicy, vibrant Syrah with classic berry fruit, a light seam of black pepper and a gentle touch of French oak, built around a genuinely elegant balance of fruit, tannin and acid. Every bottle is hand-picked, hand-labelled and bottled on site, which is the kind of small-scale care you can taste. Drink it now, or give it a couple more years if you'd rather it settle further.

What the winery says:

De La Terre describes this Syrah as spicy and vibrant, with the winemaking focused on varietal definition. It shows fresh, lively berry fruit typical of the variety, with a light seam of black pepper, and a good balance between fruit, tannin, acid and oak. The winery's broader philosophy is built around hand-picked fruit, gentle handling and minimal intervention, aiming for full-flavoured, elegant wines with balanced mouthfeel designed to work well with food.