Torero and Pasiphaë Syrah

Grapes are handpicked and cooled overnight, the following morning the grapes were placed in an open-top bin to ferment. 100% of the grapes were kept whole-bunch and crushed in the traditional foot-stomping method. Fermentation and maceration took place over 10 days. One pump-over per day taking place to sustain cap health, not to extract further. After fermentation the wine was placed into old 500L French oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation was spontaneous and in Autumn the wine was sulphured for the first time.

This Stellenbosch Syrah vineyard located on Karibib has very quickly risen into significance as it produces some of the best Syrah in the country – perpetually covered in clouds, the vineyard sits at the top of Karibib against a strip of fynbos, 300m above sea level. The vines lie in coarse decomposed Polkadraai granite, high in quartz silicate which makes for fast draining soils and concentrated grapes. The vineyard lies on a steep east-facing slope—the only one in the region. The site has a solar radiation level comparable to that of the Cote Rotie.