Claire Rogers All about wine www.sunlive.co.nz

If you are looking for a winning wine to showcase at your next dinner party, then pick up a bottle of Mills Reef Elspeth Trust Vineyard Syrah 2011.

This lovely wine just picked up a gold trophy at the London International Wine Challenge.
The Elspeth range represents the top tier of wine produced from the Mills Reef Vineyards. The grapes for this Syrah were grown in the Trust Vineyard in the highly acclaimed Gimblett Gravels, in the Hawke's Bay. The grapes were hand-picked and aged in hogshead barrels using a mixture of French and American for fifteen months.
The resulting Syrah is elegant and soft to the pallet, but don't be fooled – this is a lovely big wine full of stunning blackberry and white pepper flavours and aromas with mocha and cedar notes.
The finish is long, smooth and velvety. Actually, I am thinking forget sharing at a dinner party, just enjoy it yourself. Suggest you serve it with a steak tartare with parmesan and capers.