Esk Valley Artisanal Syrah

It’s a place. It’s a winery. It used to be called Glenvale (not to be confused with Gloriavale!) but we now know ’em as Esk Valley.

Built in 1933 by an Englishman (Robert Bird) who produced fortified wine from the 30s through to the 70s until the Esk name was created for a premium range of table wines. These days owned under the umbrella of the highly successful Villa Maria brand, although they do operate as an independent winery with their own winemaking team and vineyards including winemaking legend Gordon Russell.

The Esk Valley Artisinal range is a new fine wine range that’s been given a bit of what they like to call “the Gordon Russell treatment”. That means letting one of NZ’s true greats in winemaking roll up his sleeves and craft seriously good value wines true to variety and style. In this case we’re talking a Syrah that’s been cluster fermented with wild vineyard yeast in open top concrete fermenters and aged for 17 months in French oak.

This is the latest 2021 release is probably the best to date under this series. A Gold medal at the NZ International Wine Show. A Gold medal and 95/100 at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London. Plus a rating of 4 1/2 Stars from Michael Cooper who said “Offering fine value, the 2021 vintage (4.5*) was grown at two sites, in the Gimblett Gravels and at Bay View, and matured for 17 months in French oak puncheons and barriques (12 per cent new). Full-coloured, it is a strongly varietal wine, with excellent density of ripe plum and black pepper flavours, savoury notes adding complexity, and lots of youthful vigour. Best drinking 2025+.”