Reserve Syrah

Enjoy with a wide variety of Charcuterie and Strong Cheese.

De Morgenzon is Dutch for the morning sun a fitting name for this boutique property high on the Stellenboschkloof which is the first to be touched by the rising sun's rays. De Morgenzon's high altitude vineyards command sweeping views of Table Mountain and Cape Point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Embracing the philosophy that a biodiverse and ecologically sensitive environment produces infinitely better grapes proprietors Wendy and Hylton Appelbaum have established De Morgenzon as a 91 hectare garden interspersed with 55 hectares of carefully tended vineyards where abundant wildflowers flourish between the vines. The vineyards are currently farmed naturally and the estate is in the process of converting to organic farming.

These vineyards are situated on the farm DeMorgenzon in the Stellenboschkloof. Soils are mostly weathered granite which gives the resultant wines a natural exuberance and youthful vigour. Planted in 2004 the trellised vineyard is managed to ensure natural high acidity and full flavour concentration. 2019 was a cooler vintage than the previous hot and dry years. Whilst the vineyards benefited from decent winter rainfall there were some latent stress effects from the previous year’s drought conditions. This resulted in some uneven budding and careful harvesting was necessary to achieve a total pick of optimum ripeness. Cool conditions during the early part of the ripening resulted in high acidities and low pH, resulting in wines that are fresh, precise and bright.

The wine spent 10 months in 300L French oak barrels and a further 10 months in 3000L Fourdré barrels. After final blending the wine was transferred to 300 liter barrels for settling, after which the wine was racked and bottled without filtration.

The Syrah was manually harvested and destalked into stainless steel fermentation tanks. A small percentage of bunches were fermented without destalking. Natural fermentation followed with a slight extended maceration on the skins to stabilize the colour and give the wine palate length. Fermentation temperatures were managed between 24°C and 30°C with a combination of punch downs and gentle pump overs to extract colour and flavour from the skins. After fermentation, the wine was pressed off the skins and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel.