Family Reserve Syrah

The intense but finer tannins lend itself to a variety of meat-based dishes.

Kleine Zalze wines are marked by a classical structure and complexity matched by a vibrant flavour intensity. Discernibly South African in style, they are refreshing, beautifully balanced and well-suited to food. Our wines are made according to traditional methods with minimal cellar intervention, but supported by modern equipment.

The grapes for this wine were sourced from 2 different areas within Stellenbosch – namely the Helderberg mountain and Faure, a region close to False Bay. An exceptionally warm and dry spring led to increased root activity, resulting in vigorous and even growth at the start of the season. The end of October brought a timely rain spell that contributed to better flowering and berry set than preceding vintages. Increased vigour meant our viticulture team had to pay careful attention to canopy management making sure the fruit stays healthy and to ensure even ripening throughout the season. The harvest itself started earlier than previous years and was also quite compressed with several red varieties ripening earlier than usual. The grapes were healthy at harvest and had an intense concentration of flavours, promising great wines.

Grapes were hand harvested early in the morning, de-stemmed and sorted before being transferred to stainless steel tank for fermentation. The 2020 vintage is the culmination in many years of experimentation to facilitate a style shift from a wine labelled as Shiraz, to Syrah. This was achieved by incorporating whole bunch fermentation or addition of ripe stems in to the ferments on certain vineyards and a move away from heavily toasted new oak. 65% new French oak is used, with the remaining 35% made up of 2nd and 3rd fill barrelsThe superb structure was achieved through a combination of open and closed pump overs and careful monitoring to ensure a balanced wine.