Piqueras The Old Brick Factory Syrah

There’s nobody else in NZ more qualified (literally) to deliver quality, bang for buck imported wine than Master of Wine Steve Bennett. As another MW Bob Campbell puts it – “Steve has built his reputation on the quality of his imports.”

Every month Bob publishes a list of his Top 10 Red and Top 10 Whites (both NZ and imports) and The Old Brick Factory Syrah was Bob’s No.1 red for June 2023! What a wine this is for $20…and just in time for winter!

Bob called it “Elegant, supple red with ripe berry fruit flavours together with plum, mocha, dark chocolate and spicy flavours. Serious, stylish, well-made wine showing good varietal expression.”

Meanwhile Steve describes it as “A 15% ABV, ‘V8’ southern Spanish, blockbuster with masses of flavour.”

The Piqueras’ are a fourth generation Spanish winemaking family nestled away in Almansa, south east Spain, crafting seriously good wine for over 100 years.

Their family owned vineyards sit a whopping 2,500 feet above sea level and with high sunshine hours and low rainfall the vines, planted on stony, lime rich soils, work their arses off to produce grapes full of intense flavours. There’s even an organic sheep farm on the property where they let their fluffy little friends roam free to help keep the plant life low and the natural fertiliser high!

The vineyards used to produce this Syrah are where a small brick factory once stood. In fact the local clay on this site was used for bricks for building many houses and were renowned in the region. Those same soils today reach right down to the limestone below which help produce this stunning red wine!