Reserve Collection Syrah

The grapes are placed in small picking crates and loaded into a cold room where they are chilled down to approximately 6 degrees Celsius overnight. 30% of the grapes were first placed into the tank as whole bunches. The remainder of the grapes were de-stemmed and crushed directly into tank for fermentation without the use of pumps. There is an initial period of cold maceration for 4 days before the spontaneous fermentation. Pump-overs, délestage and punching down of the cap were implemented twice a day for extraction until fermentation was complete. The tanks were given maceration post fermentation and malolactic fermentation began spontaneously during this period. The wines were put to barrel to complete malolactic fermentation after which they were racked, sulphured and put back to barrel for further maturation. There were minimal racking’s during maturation.

This wine is 100% Shiraz from a single block with 2 clones. It is terraced into our steepest and most rocky terroir that perfectly lends itself to the variety and produces our most expressive Syrah. The average yield is around 6.0t/ha. The grapes were hand- picked on the 7th March. The grapes are picked at optimum flavour and phenolic ripeness with a sugar of 25 degrees brix and an acidity of 5.5 g/l.

The wine matured on the fine lees for 10 months after which it was racked to tank at the time of blending. The wine was then returned to barrel for a further 11 months before being racked again prior to bottling. The wine was bottled unfiltered and without fining in December 2023.