Bilancia

Bilancia's story begins not in Hawke's Bay but at Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia, where Melbourne-born Lorraine Leheny and New Zealander Warren Gibson met as winemaking students. After graduation the pair followed the harvest trail separately and together: Gibson worked vintages in Australia, Hungary, Italy, California, and France while Leheny accumulated experience in Australia, Portugal, and California. They reunited as a working couple in Margaret River, Western Australia, before Gibson was offered the chief winemaker position at the newly established Trinity Hill in Hawke's Bay in mid-1995. Two years later, in 1997, the couple founded Bilancia as their own label, producing a small lot of Chardonnay and Merlot from purchased Hawke's Bay fruit. The name, chosen for its Italian meaning of balance, equilibrium, and harmony, also reflected the fact that both founders were Librans, with the scales of the zodiac sign becoming the brand emblem. Late in 1997 they purchased six hectares (15 acres) covering the front and back of Roy's Hill on State Highway 50, a steep isolated bluff west of Hastings that nobody else had thought viable for vines. Planting of the hand-terraced upper slopes began in 1998; the first wines under the Bilancia label were released the same year. The flagship La Collina Syrah debuted with the 2002 vintage, released in 2004 at NZ$80, a benchmark price that signalled the couple's confidence in what they were making and quickly established the wine as a New Zealand cult bottling.

• Warren Gibson and Lorraine Leheny met at Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia; both worked harvests across Australia, Europe, and California before partnering
• Gibson took the chief winemaker role at Trinity Hill in mid-1995; the couple founded Bilancia as their own label two years later, in 1997, alongside that day job
• Six-hectare Roy's Hill property purchased late 1997; hand-terraced planting of Syrah on the steep north-northwest slope began 1998 because the gradient was too steep for machinery
• First La Collina Syrah was the 2002 vintage, released in 2004 at NZ$80, immediately establishing the wine as one of New Zealand's most ambitious Syrah bottlings

The viticultural heart of Bilancia is the six-hectare property on Roy's Hill, a steep solitary bluff on the inland side of State Highway 50 west of Hastings. The site is geographically unusual: it looks out over the Gimblett Gravels to the south and the Bridge Pa Triangle to the south-east, yet sits inside neither sub-region. The hill is the eroded remnant of an older landscape and rises sharply from the surrounding alluvial plains; its soils are clay and sandstone over limestone rather than the greywacke gravel that defines both neighbouring districts. The result is a free-draining yet water-retentive profile that produces wines with more mineral lift and acid line than the warm gravelly flats below. The La Collina vineyard occupies approximately three hectares of the property, planted from 1998 only on the north-northwest facing slope where ripening conditions allow Syrah to push fully but the cool nights and shading slope preserve acid and aromatics. The gradient was too steep for any mechanical work; Gibson and Leheny hand-terraced the planting themselves, widening row spacing on the terraces to accommodate manual viticulture. Around 4,500 Syrah vines are dispersed across the upper terraces, with eight rows of Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne at the edge of the slope and Chardonnay on the gentler lower flats. Trinity Hill, where Gibson is chief winemaker, sits on the opposite side of the same hill.

• Roy's Hill is a steep isolated bluff west of Hastings on State Highway 50, geologically distinct from both the Gimblett Gravels and the Bridge Pa Triangle that surround it
• Soils are clay and sandstone over limestone rather than the greywacke gravel of the neighbouring sub-regions, giving wines more mineral drive and acid line
• La Collina vineyard is approximately three hectares planted from 1998 on the north-northwest facing slope; gradient too steep for machinery, hand-terraced by Gibson and Leheny
• Around 4,500 Syrah vines on the upper terraces; eight rows of Viognier-Marsanne-Roussanne at the slope edge; Chardonnay on the gentler lower flats; Trinity Hill on the opposite side of the same hill

Bilancia's lineup is deliberately tiny, with combined production across all labels running to only a few hundred cases in most years. The flagship La Collina Syrah is the smallest of all, with reported full Australian and UK allocations each in the order of ten cases per vintage; the wine is fermented in open-top vessels with whole-bunch inclusion that varies vintage to vintage (the 2024 release was 100 percent whole-bunch), co-fermented with a tiny addition of Viognier skins rather than juice for a hint of aromatic lift, and matured in French oak barriques for 20 to 24 months with a low-impact use of new wood. The standard Bilancia Hawke's Bay Syrah, made from sourced single-vineyard fruit including Roy's Hill and Trelinnoe, is the second tier and a more approachable price point. The Tiratore Chardonnay (named for the historic use of the La Collina site as a rifle range; Tiratore is Italian for marksman) comes from the gently sloping base of the La Collina vineyard and shows the riper, peachy, oatmeal style of warmer Hawke's Bay sites. The Uvaggio field blend of Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne is made in tiny quantities from the eight rows of Rhone whites planted at the edge of the La Collina vineyard, and shows floral perfume tempered by honeysuckle and white-flower notes. La Collina has been undeclared in 2003, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2022, and 2023 because of frost, cyclone damage during harvest, or fruit that did not meet the bar.

• La Collina Syrah: estate Roy's Hill fruit, whole-bunch fermentation (proportion varies; 100% in 2024), Viognier-skin co-fermentation, 20-24 months in French oak barriques with low-impact new wood
• Bilancia Hawke's Bay Syrah: second-tier label from sourced single-vineyard Hawke's Bay fruit including Roy's Hill and Trelinnoe; broader release at lower price point
• Tiratore Chardonnay: ripe peachy style from the gentler lower slopes of La Collina; name means 'marksman' in Italian, referencing the site's historic use as a rifle range
• Uvaggio Viognier-Marsanne-Roussanne field blend: tiny quantities from eight rows of Rhone whites at the slope edge; Viognier-dominant, perfumed and savoury
• La Collina not declared in 2003, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2022, and 2023 due to frost, harvest-time cyclones, or quality calls below the bar the couple set for the wine

Warren Gibson is the rare winemaker whose name sits behind two of New Zealand's most respected Syrahs simultaneously. Since mid-1995 he has led winemaking at Trinity Hill, where his Homage Syrah, first made in the 2002 vintage and only declared in exceptional years, is regarded internationally as a benchmark for Hawke's Bay's Northern Rhone aspirations; Jancis Robinson MW has described Homage as 'a dead ringer for Cote-Rotie' with 'great balance and poise,' and the wine has scored 99 points from James Suckling. La Collina, made under the Bilancia label two kilometres away on the opposite face of Roy's Hill, is the same hand working a smaller, steeper, harder-won site with different soils. The two wines are stylistically distinct: Homage draws on warmer Gimblett Gravels fruit with greater fruit volume and silkier tannin, while La Collina shows the cooler hillside's higher acid line, more peppery aromatics, finer-grained tannin, and limestone-driven mineral cut. Lorraine Leheny is an equal partner at Bilancia and a winemaker in her own right; she has held winemaking roles at Trinity Hill, Te Awa, and other Hawke's Bay producers, and the couple's shared discipline of restraint, balance, and minimal intervention defines the Bilancia house style. Gibson was named New Zealand Winemaker of the Year by Winestate Magazine in 2005 and Winemaker of the Year at the Mercedes-Benz Hawke's Bay Wine Show in 2006.

• Warren Gibson has been chief winemaker at Trinity Hill since mid-1995 and is the architect of Homage Syrah, first made 2002 and described by Jancis Robinson MW as 'a dead ringer for Cote-Rotie'
• La Collina and Homage are the same hand working two different sites on the same hill; Bilancia's hillside fruit gives more acid, finer tannin, and limestone-driven minerality versus Homage's warmer gravelly profile
• Lorraine Leheny is an equal winemaking partner at Bilancia and has held winemaking roles across Hawke's Bay including Trinity Hill and Te Awa
• Gibson was New Zealand Winemaker of the Year (Winestate Magazine 2005) and Hawke's Bay Winemaker of the Year (Mercedes-Benz Hawke's Bay Wine Show 2006)

La Collina has built cult status through scarcity rather than marketing. Total production is small enough that the entire Australian allocation is reportedly around ten cases per vintage and the UK allocation is similar; bottles rarely appear on secondary markets because buyers who acquire them tend to keep them. Bob Campbell MW awarded the 2020 La Collina 98 points and described it as 'a Kiwi classic,' citing 'intense, powerful wine with blackcurrant compote, dark-fleshed plum, black pepper, anise and spicy oak flavours supported by sweet, ripe tannins.' James Suckling placed the 2020 vintage 8th in his Top 100 NZ Wines list. Anne Krebiehl MW scored the 2021 vintage 92 points in Decanter, with the lower score reflecting a more difficult vintage rather than diminished house standards. The 2024 La Collina was rated 98+ by both Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) and James Suckling, marking a return to peak form after the cyclone-disrupted 2022 and 2023 vintages were not declared. Decanter has profiled the producer under the headline 'the cult winery in search of perfect balance,' and Cuisine Magazine has repeatedly identified La Collina as a New Zealand benchmark. Within the small but distinguished cohort of New Zealand Syrah, La Collina sits alongside Trinity Hill Homage and Craggy Range Le Sol as the wines most often invoked when the conversation turns to Hawke's Bay's Northern Rhone credentials.

• Bob Campbell MW scored the 2020 La Collina 98 points and called it 'a Kiwi classic'; James Suckling placed the same vintage 8th in his Top 100 NZ Wines list
• Anne Krebiehl MW scored the 2021 vintage 92 points in Decanter; the 2024 La Collina earned 98+ from Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) and James Suckling
• Australian and UK allocations reportedly around ten cases each per vintage; bottles rarely appear on secondary markets because buyers tend to retain them
• Decanter profiled the producer under the headline 'the cult winery in search of perfect balance'; La Collina is invoked alongside Trinity Hill Homage and Craggy Range Le Sol as a New Zealand Syrah benchmark