Tom Syrah 2019

Description

Bottling date  28 Jan 2020
Production  2050 bottles

Technical Details at Bottling
Alcohol 15.2%
Residual sugar 3.2 g/L
Total acidity  5.42
pH 3.2

Winemaking
Grapes were hand picked on the 12^{th, 15th}  and 18^th February 2019. These arrived in Johannesburg 48 hours later in via a cold truck (5 degrees celsius). Grapes were hand sorted, lightly crushed and de-stemmed into 1,000L plastic tanks. Spontaneous fermentation started within a day. Only natural/wild yeasts were employed and manual punch-downs two or three times daily throughout as required. 25% to 45% whole bunches were used, MLF mostly occurred simultaneously.

The wines were pressed by basket press at the end of fermentation and laid down in mainly older French oak barrels. The wine was racked mid-winter and again just prior to bottling nearly 12 months later.  Un-filtered.

Vineyard
This Syrah is from two different blocks of a Swartland farm.  One has a gentle slope with a slight south facing aspect. These are bush vines that were planted in 2009 on “Koffieklip” soil which is predominantly clay meaning that it holds more water and ripens fruit earlier.

The second block, planted in 1994, is north-easterly facing.  Soils are mainly “Koiingklip’ shale and decomposed granite with low to medium potential and poor water holding capacity.  Dry land farming is employed in both blocks. Yield is approximately 7 tons/Ha.