TN:Te Mata Woodthorpe Syrah/Viognier 2003 Hawkes Bay N.Z.

[Geoffrey]

Te Mata Woodthorpe Syrah/Vioginer 2003 ; ruby red in the glass, aromas of sweet fruit, herbs, spice and pepper. once in the mouth immediate flavours of cracked pepper, some nutmeg, herbs of rosemary and thyme. Ripe fruit - raspberries and cherry, sweet and savory, well balanced with light tannin and a/c of 13%. The wine is very soft in the mouth which may come in part from the 2% Viognier, has good length but probably falls away a bit to quickly at the end. The wine is drinking at its best now and i don't think cellaring would enhance it.

The grapes are from the Hawke Bay and the wine spent sometime in French Oak. Its an easy drinkable wine and has strong varietal flavours but if anything it does lack a bit of complexity. It comes in screwcap and sells for NZ $28. The wine went well with grilled mushrooms and later tomato and tuna with pasta.

I think this is a good good effort from Te Mata and being WoodThorpe is not their top label. I find the wine falls somewhere inbetween an Australian Shiraz and a french Syrah, on the nose blind tasting i would have said it was from Australia but in the mouth France. It lacks the body and weight that you would get in an Australian Shiraz at this price where in comparison to a Syrah from France more varietal flavour. I found no real flavours of chocolate or liquorice with the wine that did surprise me, perhaps because of the use of the french oak, the fruit was ripe no hints of greenness but the wine was not jammey.
18/20
The latest news letter from Te Mata has the 2002 of this wine for $18 btl, now that is a bargain.

[Craig(NZ)]

yeah its a sneaky little wine, mind you was hard to look past the chardonnays at the te mata release tasting, i reckon the elston is a stunner

[Maximus]

Geoffrey,

I tried this wine a few months back and it really surprised me - was one of the first Shiraz/Viognier styles from NZ that I'd knowingly tried too. Loved the nose but found that the mouthfeel was a little thin - if not for this, I would have bought a case (somewhere between $18 and $28). Perhaps I should try another bottle, given that perhaps the wine hadn't quite integrated upon release.

My notes on the release tasting: http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=2748

Cheers,

[707]

I had the 2002 version at an options night recently, two bottles in fact. Both were surprisingly good although slightly different - tree bark!

Sells here in Adelaide (at a good independent retailer) for high $20s, well worth a look at that price.

This was the only NZ Shiraz I could find in Adelaide despite searching every chain and independent. Are we a parochial lot over here? That's why it's so good to read Winefront Monthly, it gives another view of the world as well as being a great read.