Kershaw Elgin Syrah 2012

In 2011, owner Richard Kershaw MW established Richard Kershaw Wines (RKW) to create clonally selected, site-specific, cool climate wine paradigms from apposite noble grapes i.e. ones with the ability to produce world-class examples. SA’s coolest wine district, Elgin Valley, reflected these principles benefitting from higher altitude, ocean proximity, specific cloud cover sequencing, high cold units and a large diurnal range, enabling the germane grapes, Chardonnay and Syrah, to show a sense of place.

Wine Of Origin: Elgin, Western Cape, South Africa

Total Vineyard Production: 8.9 tons selected from 3 small parcels of Syrah.

Varietal Information: 100% Syrah made up of Clones SH9c and SH22.

Season: 2012 was a stand out vintage with a combination of cool spring weather giving the shoots plenty of time to break buds and the absence of strong wind resulting in less shoot damage and good flowering. High cold units from cooler winter temperatures also allowed proper vine dormancy. Despite some heat surges in January, Elgin was tempered from the highs experienced elsewhere and, importantly, peak temperatures were only achieved for short periods as the night-time temps were cool and the soils took time to warm up. The extraordinary cool nights experienced in February meant that fruit aromas were preserved and acids retained. Fine weather in March accompanied by very cool mornings allowed the phenolic ripeness to proceed steadily without higher sugars. At first sight, 2012 seems an exciting and potentially excellent vintage for Syrah with low pH, tempered alcohol levels, and fine tannin frames.

The grapes were handpicked under autumnal skies into small lug baskets.

Hand-Picking Dates: 3rd - 4th April 2012

Brix at Harvest: 21.6 - 24.2

The grapes were manually sorted on a conveyor before the stems were removed. The destemmed berries fell onto a vibrating table in order to remove jacks and substandard berries before dropping into a small 500kg conical hopper and forklifted into open-topped fermenters. The grapes underwent a 3-day maceration before spontaneous fermentation began. A gentle pigeage program was charted and the grapes remained on skins for 23 days. The wine was then racked to barrel using gravity flow (no pumps were used at all) and the pomace basket pressed. Malolactic then proceeded in barrel followed by a light sulphuring and 15 month maturation. No finings were necessary and the wine was racked, blended and bottled with each bottle bearing a unique reference number.

Barrel Selection: A small number of artisanal coopers were selected from Burgundy and Rhône, with only French oak chosen. 55% of the oak was new with the remainder split into 2nd and 3rd fill barrels.