LAM Syrah 2012

The most striking thing about the wine is its vibrant raspberry hue. This follows through on the palate where a high natural acidity is balanced with fresh opulent fruit. In previous vintages the LAM Syrah had very 'garrigue' - like notes where the 2012 vintage is purer in fruit and spice. Very clean and elegant.

variety : Shiraz [ 100% Syrah ]

winery : Lammershoek Farms & Winery

winemaker : Craig Hawkins

wine of origin : Lammershoek

analysis : alc : 12.5 % vol

type : Red style : Dry taste : Fruity wooded

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 10 - 20 years.

about the harvest: 2012 was a very challenging vintage. Cool dry weather allowed a slow, even growing season, but this was abruptly interrupted by severe heat in early January with no rain for 3 - 4 months. This made conditions extremely difficult and yields were thus naturally low. Important decisions needed to be made in the vineyard of when to harvest the grapes so as to allow enough material to be extracted into the final wine without allowing any unripe or over ripe flavours due to the heat. The two Syrah vineyards were thus harvested earlier than usual, on the 6th and 8th February respectively.

in the cellar : A very rough sorting was done to remove any over/under ripe grape bunches and leaves from entering into the fermentation 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 was used (60-70%) and the rest of the grapes de-stemmed whole on top of this. More whole bunches were used in 2012 than 2011 as extra fruit in a hot vintage was the aim. 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 2000L Foudre. The wine was blended after 11 months and bottled.

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