Marius Single Vineyard Almansa 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.”

The Piqueras’ are a fourth generation Spanish winemaking family nestled away in Almansa, south east Spain, crafting seriously good wine for over 100 years. And as Steve puts it Piqueras are “One of the best value producers I’ve discovered in my 29 years in the industry.”

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!

This is their Marius Single Vineyard Syrah using fruit from vines that are 30-35 years old from the Finca Los Timonares Estate, the first owned by the Piqueras family. Aged six months in oak and now clearly showing the benefit of several years of bottle age this is a seriously good value for money this is a silky, succulent, spicy Syrah with dark red fruit and sweet plum flavours.