Vidal Legacy Syrah, Hawkes Bay

Description

Vidal Legacy Syrah is produced only in limited quantities and represents the ultimate expression of Hawkes Bay. The grapes come from specially selected parcels of grapes from the best sites of the estate. It is the flagship red wine of the estate (there is also a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvigon / Merlot Blend).

Vidal Estate was established in 1905 by Anthony Joseph Vidal, a young Spanish immigrant who had arrived in New Zealand in 1888. He spent the years before he founded Vidal working for his uncle Joseph Soler, one of the pioneers of the New Zealand wine industry. Family owned until the 1970’s, Vidal was purchased in 1976 by George Fistonich (who also owns Villa Maria and Te Awa) who has consistently built upon Vidal’s reputation as a quality wine producer ever since.

Vidal Estate is located in Hastings in the Hawke’s Bay region of the North Island and it is here where his first vines were planted. It is here no the original site that the company’s modern, state of the art winery is situated. Vidal source their grapes mainly from Hawke’s Bay, including the world-famous Gimblett Gravels, but they also source grapes for some of their wines from Marlborough for their Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.

The grapes for the Vidal Legacy Syrah come from the estate’s Omahu and Twyford Gravels vineyards in the heart of the Gimblett Gravels grape growing district where the soils are made up of relatively recent alluvial deposits of gravel with varying degrees of silt and sand. After harvest the grapes are destemmed and then crushed. The cap was managed by a combination of hand plunging and pumping over. Fermentation took place in open top fermenters at a temperature of 30-34°C, spending 20-28 days on its skins. The wine is matured for 20 months in French oak barriques, 33% of which are new. Bottled with minimal fining and filtration.

Vidal Estate is dedicated to environmentally friendly winemaking and sustainable winegrowing practices.