LAM Syrah 2011

The most striking thing about the wine is its vibrant violet/raspberry hue. This follows through on the palate where a high natural acidity is balanced with fresh opulent fruit. Garrigue-like (similar to Fynbos) smells are obvious on the nose reminding one of a wine from the Crozes Hermitage region.

variety : Shiraz [ 100% Syrah ]

winery : Lammershoek Farms & Winery

winemaker : Craig Hawkins

wine of origin : Lammershoek

analysis : alc : 13.5 % vol rs : 1.2 g/l pH : 3.4 ta : 7 g/l

type : Red style : Dry taste : Fruity

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : 5 -10 years

in the vineyard : Farmed organically and dry-land (not irrigated). The soil is decomposed granite and the yield 4t/ha. A combination of trellised and bush vine vineyards was used. There are 9 different vineyard sites for Syrah on the farm, for this wine the vineyards are situated on the bottom of the 2 dominating slopes on Lammershoek roughly 150m above sea level. Vineyard age is between 9-19 years.

about the harvest: 2011 was a tricky year. The vintage followed a very dry winter, and a cool growing season was followed by an abrupt passage of very hot weather from January through February. Luckily there was hardly any sun damage and this made for a smooth harvesting process. The grapes were picked by hand in small 20kg lugs. Harvesting commenced for this wine on the 8th of February and ended on the 12th of February.

in the cellar : A very rough sorting was done to remove any over/ under ripe grapes and leaves from entering into the fermenting tank. The grapes were fermented in three large open-top concrete fermenters (8-10 ton tanks) for a period of 2-3 weeks depending on the tank. A large percentage of whole bunches were used (45%) and the rest of the grapes de-stemmed whole on top of this. Any crushing was done by foot.

No recipe was followed, but a philosophy of “no extraction” was taken, only pigeage by foot was done and a maximum of once a day. Otherwise the cap was kept wet by bucketing juice over the top. The grapes were pressed in a basket press and then allowed to finish malo in old 225L casks. The wine was blended after 11 months into a large 9500L concrete tank where it stayed for another 7 months before being bottled un-fined and un-filtered.

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