2019 Kusuda Syrah

WINEMAKER: Hiro Kusuda
REGION: Martinborough, NZ
VARIETAL: Syrah
VITICULTURE: Sustainable

"Taut, youthful Syrah with violet, cherry, spice, anise, black and white pepper and a suggestion of classy French oak. The wine blossomed as it sat in the glass and would clearly benefit from aeration as it would from bottle age. A great Syrah in the Kusuda style." - Bob Campbell MW

Tokyo-born Hiroyuki (known as Hiro) Kusuda trained as a lawyer and worked for Fujitsu, then the Consulate General of Japan in Sydney before giving it all up to pursue his other love, wine and winemaking. He went to Germany, learned the language, enrolled at Geisenheim and then emigrated to New Zealand to pursue both Riesling and Pinot grapes – to which a third challenge, Syrah, has now been added. The choice of New Zealand in general and Martinborough in particular apparently came about through tasting the 1992 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir.