Christiena Trousseau Syrah

A serious wine to accompany fine cuisine. Good with red meat dishes, aged steak, hearty stews or smoked meat & chicken.

Weathered shale with red stoney outcrops. The top soil is deep, rich in clay and offers excellent growth potential for the Shiraz vines. The Shiraz grapes are hand harvested early in the morning to ensure that they are delivered to the winery before the hottest part of the day. The yield is low and of and of a high quality.

The entire fermentation process takes around 10 days and after the process is complete, the wine is gently racked into 300L French oak barrels (20% of which are new) and left to age in temperature controlled rooms for a period of between 15-18 months.

Once the grapes are harvested, they are gently crushed and moved to an open fermenter. The Shiraz juice undergoes a “cold soak” on the skins for a period of between 24 to 48 hours. For the Christiena Shiraz, Viognier skins are added and the must is fermented on these skins (as well as the skins of the Shiraz). This is an adaptation of a technique used in Cotie Rotie, a famous Shiraz producing area in the Northern Rhone in France. Viognier is a white grape but fermenting the Shiraz on the Viognier grape skins increases the aromatics as well as adding a silky texture to the Christiena Shiraz wines. Fermentation takes place at a higher temperature for red wines at between 24-25 degrees Celsius and the wine receives regular “pump overs” in order to ensure an even distribution of colour and tannins.

Van Loveren has been in the Retief family since 1937 when Hennie Retief snr acquired the land in the Robertson Valley and named it after Christina van Loveren, an ancestor of his new bride, Jean van Zyl. From humble beginnings, Van Loveren has grown to become South Africa's leading family-owned winery, known for their consistency, award-winning wines as well as innovation.