Syrah 2020

Porseleinberg Syrah comes from the Swartland wine region of South Africa, an arid and extreme terroir, famous for its slate and granite soils, as well as its old, rain-fed vines. The winery was founded in 2009 by Mark Kent of Boekenhoutskloof Estate, with the idea of ​​creating a unique and exceptional Syrah cuvée. Callie Louw , a visionary winemaker with a non-interventionist style, manages the winemaking process, respecting the character of the vintage as much as possible. The grapes are carefully selected and picked in the vineyard. He mainly uses whole clusters during fermentation. The wine is then aged in 2500-litre oak tuns and a few concrete eggs. This approach allows for an élevage that promotes micro-oxygenation, while avoiding oak aromas, as Callie does not want the oak to interfere with the purity of the fruit and the character of the terroir. This wine reveals aromas of wild blackberries, cherries, raspberries, red currants, dried roses, leather, orange peel, black pepper , cloves, tobacco and allspice . The palate is spicy, suave and captivatingly elegant, with fine tannins and a lively finish. Porseleinberg Syrah is often compared to the best Syrahs of the Northern Rhone, combining structure, elegance and refinement, and has established itself as one of the best Syrahs in the world. The iconic labels are hand-printed by Callie on a 170-year-old Heidelberg press, adding an artisanal charm to the wine.

The first vines were planted in South Africa by Dutch settlers in the 1650s, although wine production did not really begin to take off until the arrival of French Protestants, in the 1680s, with their skills and their knowledge of viticulture. Stellenbosch is also a historic wine region, with the first vineyards being planted there in the 1690s. Today South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of winemaking history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more in common stylistically with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and acclaim for its wide variety of styles. South Africa's wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Vineyards can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a Mediterranean climate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The country's signature grape variety is Pinotage, an indigenous cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in other wine-producing countries. Shiraz (Syrah) is also widely planted, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend). South African Chardonnay, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc have become popular internationally in recent years.