“Dark plummy red in colour, the Topside Syrah 2018 is shy at first, but opens into a beautiful bouquet of black fruit with hints of ripe cherries, rose petal and white pepper. On the palate, the wine is tight and savoury with bold, grippy tannin structure. This anchors the powerful dark fruit with hints of herbs and pepper. The finish is long and focused with juicy, succulent fruit notes and lingering tannin. Drink 2020-2030.” – winemaker’s tasting notes

All grapes used in producing this wine come from the Topside Syrah block. Small parcels of grapes are specifically selected according to ripeness, harvested by hand and vinified separately. Fermentation is carried out by yeast which occurs naturally on the grape skins and in the winery. Red wines spend 3 – 4 weeks fermenting and macerating on the skins in small open top tanks with one or two gentle punch-downs performed per day. This wine spent 20 months maturing in seasoned 225L and 500L French oak barrels before being bottled by hand on 5 December 2019. Only 2822 bottles and 50 magnums were produced.

Despite prevailing drought conditions, 2018 was a very good growing season on Keermont. They had a fairly cold winter although it was drier than usual. Spring arrived quite early and the warm weather ensured an even budburst. They had some good rain showers during the season which allowed for the vines to grow sufficiently. These factors led to the formation of a healthy crop which ripened evenly. They had very notable diurnal temperature variation during this season (warm days and cool nights) which is responsible for good tannin, colour and flavour development. Harvest started at the beginning of February and ran very smoothly. They processed 87 tons (13 varieties) in the Keermont winery over the period of 7 weeks.

ANALYSIS: ALC 14.5% | TA 54. l/g | RS 2 g/l | pH 3.57