Had this over the weekend and it's rather lovely. Lighter, as you'd expect from NZ, floral, with some syrah fruit but definitely more mineral than other NW syrah/shiraz. Juicy acidity and long flavour. A result.

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mel

https://www.majestic.co.uk/Villa-Maria- ... h-zid37037.
Presumably the light pepper and subtle vanilla lift are from light oak maturation, but. . . Majestic don't actually say so in the blurb. I do think Majestic's summaries for some popular wines are falling short in informing buyers of the basics these days!

NZ syrah can be a tad sweet and soft, and without sufficient cut to the palate - yet I must try more of them to know.

Thanks for the TN.

Even with the discount, there are a lot of Côtes du Roussillon-Villages wines with real clout and loads of rustic personality at this price, and from tiny bijou producers. Two quite different wines of course, and the Roussillon will have grenache to give more lift on the palate, but which would you rather buy for a supper evening? For £10.49. I think the starting price of £13.99 is a tad inflated. The recent Budget has not helped, although GO said wine duty was *frozen on Budget day. *Not escalated from a previous recent announcement - Hmmmn.

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Duncan

Some of us were lucky enough to score some of this in the Marks & Spencer Christmas clearance. So we got the first discount as well as two case 25% discount at check-out. The wine was rather expensive at full retail - here is the link

http://www.thehaypaddock.co.nz/OurStory ... abels.aspx

It was / has been a new Syrah experience for me, and thankfully the Hay Paddock harvest man vintage 2012 was oaked for 12 months in what tastes like, very decent oak. I think the 2012 wine could do with a bit more aging, hopefully to produce a little more fruit complexity.
I do understand what you mean about the floral nature, and particularly the underlying minerality. Harvest man is also very herby, which adds further interest.

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Duncan