DWWA 2014 Regional Trophy: New Zealand Red Rhône Varietals over £15

This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for New Zealand Red Rhône Varietals over £15 went to Crossroads, Winemakers Collection Syrah, Gimblett Gravels, Hawke's Bay 2010 (13%)

Tasted against:

• No other Golds in this category

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Founded in 1987, but owned by the Yealands Wine Group since 2011, Crossroads has forged a reputation for releasing some truly marvellous wines. Through gradual investment it now owns six vineyards across the country, including four in Hawke’s bay.

Its Winemakers Collection is a series of wines created from the best parcels of fruit. This Trophy-winning Syrah comes from its small Elms vineyard (where Crossroads has planted three different Syrah clones) on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke’s bay – a great location for the grape, says winemaker Miles Dinneen. ‘The vineyard produces ripe, aromatic wines year after year. The free-draining gravel soils limit vine vigour, naturally producing small crops of small-berried fruit, and our temperate climate means the wines always have good balance,’ he explains.

Dinneen is Hawke’s Bay born and bred, and after a spell in the US he returned home, joining Crossroads in 2004. The objective with Crossroads wines, he says, is straightforward: ‘We concentrate on careful, sustainable viticulture and simple, hands-on winemaking to clearly represent the best in Hawke’s Bay wine.’

Written by Decanter