2021 Le Sol Syrah

The 2021 Le Sol, 100% Syrah fermented with 27% whole bunches, is medium garnet-purple in color. It gives up notes of black raspberries, black cherries, and cracked black pepper with hints of garrigue, violets, and coffee beans with a waft of tar. The medium-bodied palate is bright, refreshing, and elegantly styled, with bags of spicy red and black fruits, finishing long and peppery.
94/100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown; The Wine Independent

Craggy Range Le Sol 2021 (Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand; 100% Syrah; a final yield of 28 hl/ha; aged in French oak barrels, 32% of which were new; pH 3.62; 13% alcohol). Named in tribute to the sheer quality of its famous Gimblett Gravels terroir. The second release of this wine. Lithe, plump and plush on the palate and wonderfully expressive of its pure Syrah on the nose, this is my first experience with this wine and I’m very impressed. I love the rocky minerality here, the assorted crushed black, red and green peppercorn notes, the intense dark berry fruit (boysenberry, bramble and mulberry) and that gamey animal meatiness so redolent of top Syrah. If this were from France, it would be from Cornas. The tannins are sweet, soft and enveloping and they structure the slow gently contoured evolution of the wine over the palate. Very fine, almost delicate and brilliantly understated.
95/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business

Structured and concentrated, this opens with the vibrant aromatics of Syrah, full of freshly cut herbs, violet flowers, aniseed and fennel, with raspberry, liqourice, earth, and gently smoked white pepper. Delicate and sappy with a core of power that draws out the flavours, totally delicious. I would give this a little bottle age to really make the most of the complexity. 27% whole bunch winemaking, native yeast fermentation, bottled unfined, very light filtration, 3.62ph, 32% new oak. Director David T Peabody, chief winemaker Julian Grounds. From the Gimblett Gravels area of Hawkes Bay.
96/100 Jane Anson