Description / Reviews
"The 2024 growing season proved to be a joy after the very interesting 2023 and the fickle 2022. The only issue was the low crop levels. The fruit was hand harvested in perfect condition and this allowed for 100% whole bunch fermentation. The wine was fermented in open top fermentation vessels, pressed at dryness and transferred to barriques for élevage.
The aim is to produce a wine that shows the excitement of Hawke's Bay hillside Syrah. The 2024 la collina is a great example of this; spice, brambly and berry fruits with structure, length, velvety tannins and drinkability but still with the ability to age." - Bilancia, Winemaker
"Warren Gibson and Lorraine Leheny are two of my favourite folks in the NZ wine industry. They also happen to make my favourite wine from their epic, impeccably farmed, terraced vineyard called La Collina, which overlooks the Gimblett Gravels. There is 100% whole-bunch fruit in the '24 vintage, and the wine is singing. Damson plum, dark cherry, cocoa nibs, dried blood orange, citrus blossom, fennel tops, dried meats, cold tea, souk-like spice and more distant tones of crushed rock, graphite and black pepper. Perfectly weighted, with impeccable balance and flow. Mid-weighted, with stunning fruit and kinetic, powdery tannins that show elasticity, like peering back at your footprints on wet sand and watching them slowly disappear. It is just wonderful. Bravo." - 98+ Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
"This is the first wine released since 2021. The 2024 La Collina Syrah is 100% whole-bunch fruit, which is dependent on the year, but this 2024 season was well suited to it. Aromatically, there's raw cocoa, fresh blood, pomegranate molasses, star anise, freshly mowed fennel, crushed rocks, licorice, lavender, raspberry and black tea, with pastrami and hung deli meat lace the edges. Gosh, I love this wine. On the medium-bodied palate, the wine is shaped by ductile, chalky tannins, which serve to enhance the perception of fruit and spice, and these tannins drag out the flavor through the long finish. This is a spectacular wine. It's truly great, and not just in a Hawke's Bay context, nor merely a New Zealand context, but truly great in a global Syrah context. This is a superb example. I love it. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
This terraced place is as beautiful as it tastes in the glass, which brings forth rose petals, asphalt, petrichor, a crack of minerality and ozone. And the wine will only get better as it gains bottle-aged complexity. If the fruit isn't suitable for La Collina, it's not even declassified; it's just not picked. I like the severity and purity of that call." - 98+ Points, Erin Larkin, The Real Review
"Starts off very quietly and then builds in intensity as it sits in the glass. Ripe red plum and black cherry with dried thyme, sage and lavender. Despite the concentration and richness, there's a floral lightness to the perfectly ripe fruit. Palate-coating chalky fine tannins growing in presence towards the finish. An impressively concentrated but quietly understated wine with masses of potential" - 97 Points, Jane Skilton, The Real Review
