Three Pines Syrah

Beef, Lamb, Game (deer, venison), Poultry

This wine is based on our “Block 6” of Syrah, our oldest Syrah vineyard. The vineyard block is contiguous with our. Block 5 Cabernet Sauvignon, it is from the same bench of soil — a very finely textured decomposed granite with a fairly high proportion of clay that contributes to good water retention.

At dryness, the wine was basket pressed and racked directly to barrel for malo-lactic fermentation and subsequent barrel maturation. A mix of coopers was used, all French oak, all 300 litre, mostly second-fill and about 40% new. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered after 22 months barrel maturation.

After being cooled overnight to 14 degrees C., they were carefully hand-sorted and crushed into small open fermentation vats and allowed to cold-soak for several days. A small portion was left whole bunch and also uncrushed. About 50% of the blend was natural fermentation and the balance was split between a domestic yeast and an imported Rhône yeast. Regular, vigorous punchdowns were given every 4-6 hours for the first half of fermentation, then every 6-8 hours thereafter.

Stark-Condé Wines is located in the picturesque Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. It is a dramatic valley with steep changes in vineyard elevation from 150 to 600 metres making for a range of sites with distinct characteristics. At Stark-Condé they stick to traditional winemaking methods: open tank fermentation meticulous sorting of grapes hand-punchdowns basket pressing and maturation in small French oak barrels.