Rich red fruit slips out the glass like silk and velvet made tangible. A veil of spicy, resinous twigs dissolves into mulberries, olive tapenade and a background chorus of night flowers. Dripping in ripe redcurrants, the palate is succulent and flows with a gentle, blood orange acidity. There’s a touch of cherry cola, whipped away in a cloud of fresh black pepper. Like the finest of fabrics barely-there svelte tannins seam to a well-balanced, and neatly dry finish.
in the vineyard : The grapes are sourced from vineyards located in Paarl, South Africa. The region features decomposed granite soils and a Mediterranean climate, providing ideal conditions for Syrah cultivation.
about the harvest: The 2023 season will be remembered for the dry and warmer winter, generally good growing conditions during the vegetative growth phase, good rain shortly before véraison, which benefitted quality, and a cool and wet ripening period, which gave grapes a chance to ripen optimally at a slower rate. Cooler conditions delayed the ripening of grapes and the harvest commenced at the usual time in early February. Excellent flavour, as well as colour profiles, were observed.
in the cellar : The Syrah was hand-harvested in parcels and transferred into open top fermenters. A small percentage of bunches were fermented without destalking. Natural fermentation followed, with a combination of punch downs and pump overs to extract colour and flavour from the skins. After fermentation, the wine was pressed off the skins and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrels and foudres with a short maceration on the skins to stabilize the colour and give the wine palate length. The wine spent a further 8 months in 500 litre and 300 litre French oak barrels and 2500 litre foudré barrels (40% third fill).