2001 Syrah

Winemaker's notes:

Harvest: 1 lot, hand harvested on May 16th, 2001. Selected fruit only. Destemmed by gravity into a tiny open top fermenter. Brix: 24.4 TA:8.4g/l pH: 3.18 ML: 2.88g/l Yield: 5.9T/ha (2.38T/acre)

Cellar & Bottling: Pre fermentation cold soak for five days. Native fermentation started after about 8 days. Total time on skins 25 days. Pressed, racked to 1.5 barrels. Full malolactic in barrel. Not racked. Aged for fifteen months before racking, blending and bottling without filtration. Bottled on August 29, 2002. 34 cases (750ml x 12bt) RS: <1g/L TA: 5.55g/L pH: 3.64 Alcohol:~ 14.5%

The Wine: Syrah, along with Pinotage, is being retained after its success in our trial block. Although the quantities have been tiny, we are excited by what this variety has shown in the last three seasons. We are top grafting our Bordeaux reds to Syrah to make sure we have a reasonable quantity in the future.