Lelie van Saron Syrah 2020

“Fermented with 40% whole clusters, it has pepper, violet, and clove aromas, red cherry and tangerine flavours, stylisk oak and a focused, racy, tapering finish.” - 93 points *Tim Atkin

The fruit comes from a cool climate vineyard on the Debos farm, at the foothills of the Babylonstoren mountain. In the vineyard a clone selection is made to meticulously craft this wine. The focus is on smaller berries and more compact bunches. While bunches with lignified stems are used for the whole bunch component.

Fruit is handpicked, hand sorted and destemmed into open top fermenters, together with 40% whole clusters. Aided by gentle pump overs, fermentation is spontaneous and completes within 3 weeks at moderate temperatures. Extended skin maceration favored the structure of the wine. Barrel maturation lasted 12 months in older French oak barrels.