Syrah

Serve with rare fillet, smokey dishes and medium weight meats like ostrich or game.  

Tucked into the foothills of a dramatic mountain range at the bottom of Africa is Lismore Estate Vineyards. Californian Samantha O'Keefe has found paradise and the perfect terroir. Her passion combined with vines planted at 300 meters chilled by the winter snow and nourished by the African summer sun produce classic cool climate wines which are rich complex and lovingly hand crafted.

The Syrah is made from 30% Greyton fruit planted in heavy schist (decomposed shale) soils with no irrigation, and 70% Elgin fruit on sandstone and shales soils. Two of the coolest climates in in South Africa with extreme diurnal temperature shifts present us with a Syrah that has a very distinct sense of place. One that tells its story in the glass.

The wine was racked into 225, 300 and 500 litre barrels where malolactic fermentation took place, and the wine was aged for 12 months. 5% new French oak was used.

The grapes were picked at optimal ripeness. 40% whole bunch fermented in large 5000 litre vats with gentle pump-overs twice a day and then finished with a 28-day extended maceration before being the free run juice was drained and the skins an whole bunches were pressed in a traditional wooden basket press. The process allowed for a long extraction period which softens the wine and lends to the fruit expression and structure.