Steepside Syrah

Serve with roast meats or Moroccan lamb.

A cold wet winter (as experienced in this vintage) is a good thing for the vine. It goes into full dormancy and wakes up well rested and ready for the season ahead. This was apparent with very even budding and strong early growth during spring. From that point onwards, we experienced a very dry season. Growing conditions, however, were ideal with warm days and cool nights. This variation in temperature leads to good flavour and colour development in the berries and as a result we had a small crop with great quality. We had our earliest harvest yet starting on 23 January and finishing on 3 March and took 70 tons of grapes into the winery. Yield 2015: 5.9 ton/Ha

This wine spent 20 months maturing in seasoned 225 and 500 Litre French oak barrels before being bottled by hand without filtration. Only 2571 bottles were produced.

All grapes used in producing our wines are grown on Keermont Vineyards. Small parcels of grapes are specifically selected according to ripeness, harvested by hand and vinified separately. This process is carried out gently and naturally in open top fermenters using traditional methods only.

Agriculture in the Upper Blaauwklippen Valley can be traced back to 1694. In 2003 the Wraith family moved to the Western Cape from Gauteng and bought two adjacent farms. These two farms are now farmed as one Estate known as Keermont Vineyards. 2005 saw the start of a major vineyard planting programme on lands that had been fallow for a number of years. We planted 21Ha over seven years to add to an existing 8Ha of older vineyards. Our official maiden vintage was 2007 and in 2010 a spring water bottling plant on Fleurfontein was converted into a fully functional winery complete with offices tasting room processing facilities and barrel rooms.