Fairview Cyril Back 2005
2008 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Bronze
2008 International Wine Challenge - Commended
2008 Decanter World Wine Awards - Bronze Medal
Modern style nose, yet showing herbal and mineral notes. Palate shows fine tannins, rich spice and multi-layered texture.
variety : Shiraz [ 100% Shiraz ]
winemaker : Anthony de Jager
wine of origin : Coastal
analysis : alc : 15.54 % vol rs : 3.1 g/l pH : 3.71 ta : 5.5 g/l
type : Red style : Dry wooded
pack : Bottle closure : Cork
AWARDS
2008 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Bronze
2008 International Wine Challenge - Commended
2008 Decanter World Wine Awards - Bronze Medal
ageing : Although already showing good integration I feel that this wine will be at its best from 2009.
in the vineyard : The first vintage of the Cyril Back is a barrel selection Shiraz from two vineyard sites in Paarl and Stellenbosch.
Stellenbosch fruit was from a south facing vineyard on the slopes of the Simonsberg mountains, at 350-400m above sea level. These soils are a combination of Hutton, Oakleaf and Tukulu soils derived from granite parent rock. This 8 year old vineyard is trellised, and receives minimal irrigation as the soils have good water retention.
The Agter-Paarl vineyard is on Glenrosa soils and is on an North-Westerly facing rocky outcrop and is the same vineyard from which Fairview sources the fruit for The Beacon Shiraz. This bushvine vineyard was planted in 1995 using clone SH9A and rootstock R110, and is dry land farmed.
about the harvest: Overall the run up to the 2005 harvest was good. The winter was cold and we had a long warm ripening season. Higher than usual January rainfall meant some extra work in the vineyard to maintain cropping and vigour levels. There was good flowering and fruit set in both the Stellenbosch and Paarl vineyards, resulting in a healthy well balanced crop with deep colour and flavour.
All the fruit was hand picked in mid February, based on phenolic ripeness (Stellenbosch and Agter-Paarl fruit at 25.2 and 25.8 degrees balling respectively). The Stellenbosch vineyards yielded 4.5 t/ha and the Paarl vineyard 3t/ha.
in the cellar : The bunches were destalked and berry selections carefully carried out over sorting table. The two components were fermented separately in open 500l French oak casks, with fermentation allowed to start naturally. The Paarl fruit was inoculated after a few days, while the Stellenbosch component fermented dry, using only natural yeasts. Fermentation and post ferment maceration meant that the wine spent approximately 20 days on the skins, resulting in deep colour extraction.
The must was gently basket pressed and sent to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. The components were individually matured for 18 months in 60% new French oak. The Cyril Back 05 was blended and bottled in November 2006 unfined, with a very light filtration. The final blend comprises 75% Stellenbosch and 25% Paarl wine.
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