2023 Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah Gimblett Gravels Hawke's Bay 6pk 6x750ml

Founded in 1998 by Terry and Mary Peabody, Craggy Range has built its name on New Zealand's most distinguished sites. The family set up a 1,000-year trust to keep the winery under family stewardship for generations. Le Sol is their flagship Syrah, from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay, a stone-strewn terrace that radiates heat and gives Syrah uncommon concentration and structure.

2023 was a cooler, more restrained year in Hawke's Bay, the season Cyclone Gabrielle hit the region in February. Craggy Range's vineyards sit south of the two main rivers and came through without serious damage, and the free-draining gravels helped the reds recover. The fruit was hand-harvested from Blocks 10, 14 and 4, fermented in a French oak cuve and an open-top stainless fermenter with 24 to 28 days on skins, then aged 17 months in French barriques and Austrian demi-muids.

Craggy Range describes lavender, licorice, graphite and mulberry on the nose, a finely etched palate of floral and savory notes carried on a thread of freshness, and silky, precise tannins. Cameron Douglas MS gave it 94, and Stephen Wong MW scored it 95 for The Real Review, naming it a Top Value pick among 2023 Hawke's Bay Syrahs.

This is a Syrah for the cellar. Douglas puts the best drinking at 2027 through 2035.