Blend: 52% Syrah; 48% Cabernet Sauvignon
Analysis:
Alcohol: 13.5 % | PH: 3.79 | Titratable acidity: 6.1 g/L
Bottling Date: August 2021
Cellaring: 5+ years
Tasting Notes:
A deep, brooding wine with intense aromas of cassis, blueberry and blackberry along with black pepper, vanilla, dark chocolate, graphite and some dried herbs and burlap. The palate is full-bodied and intense with crisp acidity and ripe firm tannins to age, dark chocolate, mint, sage, some black plum, ripe raspberry and a touch of leather. Pair with grilled steak with chimichurri or roasted vegetables with rose harissa.
Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
Spring arrived early in 2019, allowing for early and even bud break, flowering and fruit set. This was followed by a warm, yet more moderate summer. The summer heat was enough to produce nicely concentrated levels of ripeness in the grapes and the cool autumn provided conditions for acidity to be retained in the fruit as well, providing the wine with a lively freshness to balance the ripe fruit notes.
The Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were harvested by hand from Burrowing Owl’s block A8 on the Black Sage Bench in Oliver from mid- to late October of 2019. They were de-stemmed and gently crushed before being gravity fed into the same tank. This co-fermentation process helped to marry the flavours and created a unique harmony to the blend according to Aristotle’s principle that “the whole is greater than the sum of its part”. After completion, the wine was transferred into barrels for the malolactic fermentation and subsequent ageing for 18 months. The barrels were carefully selected for their ability to integrate components and round out the tannins while contributing to complex savoury notes. The wine was bottled unfiltered and left to mature in bottle until its release.
