2006 Syrah

($24.99)

Tasting Notes

The aromas are sweet; blackberry, caramel, and vanilla, but they belie the wines texture which is pretty dry with lean tannins. The body is full and tannic, and the finish is long. There is also a smoky theme which runs through this wine which comes from the barrels (heavy use of French Vosges and American Demptos), and from the lot which went through the extended maceration. This latter lot really contributed a tar paper character which built great complexity into the wine.

Notes on Fermentation

This was our last fruit harvested from the 2006 vintage; harvested on the edge of an early freeze. The planting of the Goltz vineyard deserves mention here. The vines are planted at extremely high density forcing the vines to compete against each other, theoretically to keep vigour down, forcing the vines energy into the grapes rather than the leaves. The fruit came in cold (2 deg. C) giving us the opportunity for a long cold soak which is evident in the colour. The Syrah was separated into three different fermenters with Viognier crushed into two of them. Different yeasts were used in each lot to build some complexities and one lot was left an additional 2 weeks on the skins past dryness. After pressing each lot was kept separate and allowed to finish malolactic in barrels (50/50 French and American, new through 2 years old). Each lot was allowed to stay in contact with its lees until racking in August (8 months contact).