Fresh and Still Funky

We have this impression that modern wines are properly clean and fresh, and they should be devoid of faults.  True, especially in the commercial sense.  But the more wise and wily talk about the best wines having a hint of corruption, just to add that edge of intrigue and naughtiness, and to put the wines just slightly out of perfect balance, so they have the tension to get and maintain one’s attention.  The best of the fresh, clean and modern still retain a hint of funkiness that can make them great.

Hazza brought along one such wine. Tthe 2010 Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Hawke’s Bay Syrah.  A very modern interpretation of Syrah.  In fact generally clean as a whistle and super sleek with refined tannin and texture.  One could almost say slippery.  And oh so wonderful fruit.  Beautifully ripe black fruits seamlessly melded with florals and complexed by iron-earth and minerals.  The acidity perfect.  Syrah at its purest but with the terroir of the Gimblett Gravels and the regionality of Hawke’s Bay.  But….wait for it….the most subtle emergence and fading of something a little grubby.  Well, grubby is a little too strong.  Funky is too strong.  That suggestion of corruption – yes.  This wine captured our palates and imagination, taking beyond modern Syrah from the Gimblett and Hawke’s Bay.  Maybe a little closer to the Rhone, but not there either.  Wonderful stuff!