First planted in 1990, the Bullnose vineyard’s old red iron soils produce Te Mata Estates finest syrah. This wine has distinct floral and spice aromas, rich flavours of plum, rasberry and ablackberry with a velvety texture. The wine is named Bullnose after an early Morris Cowley car, which was nicknamed Bullnose due to its distinctive radiator. The bull emblem that appears on the wine label is drawn from the car’s radiator crest.

Separate parcels of fully ripened syrah grapes were hand-harvested from Te Mata Estate’s Bullnose, Hotspur and Isosceles Vineyards between 3 and 17 April 2019.

The individual lots were each destemmed and given a traditional warm-plunged fermentation. The resulting wines underwent extended maceration on skins before pressing and then a secondary malolactic fermentation. The separate wines were then run to a mixture of new and seasoned French oak barriques for 14 months’ maturation. During this time, they were regularly topped and racked, before blending and then bottling in October 2020.

Brilliant amethyst with a deep black core, Bullnose Syrah ’19 glimmers with raspberry, ripe black cherry, and dried strawberry over lush velvet tannins. There are grace notes of black pepper, chocolate, liquorice, lilac, even char and baking spices, with the structure and elegance contributing to undeniable ageing potential. Ripe-fruited. Taut. Silky. Bullnose Syrah ’19 is utter class. A black velvet beauty.