Syrah 393

Please note: Award stickers are applied at the producer's discretion and may not be present on all bottles.

Handpicking into 20 kg crates. Destemming and gentle crushing directly into small 2 ton open top fermentation tanks with 10% whole bunches. Spontaneous natural yeast fermentation @ max. 30°C with the cap of skins punched down manually 1 - 3 times a day for 14 days. 1/3 whole bunch fermented for 1 month in oak foudre. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from traditional basket press. Malolactic fermentation in the barrel. 30% new fine grained, slow toasted small French oak was used in the first year and old 700L oak in the second year.

A relatively easy growing season with moderate weather throughout, following a cold wet winter. An exceptionally warm early spring ensured a successful budburst and flowering with good even shoot growth. Above average rain at the end of October kept soil moisture optimum during the later hot summer. Gale force winds in January caused damage to some of our exposed mountainous vineyards, reducing yields a little. An excellent early harvest with full bodied, generous wines with intense, complex fruit flavours.

Time in barrel 20 months with only 2 gentle rackings. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered by hand.