2018 Syrah Lay-down 6
Every year at Clonakilla we fill a single fermenter with pure Shiraz from our North-East facing T&L vineyard.
The winemaking is kept as simple as possible. Whole berries are fermented warm by their own native yeasts. The wine spends a month macerating on skins and twenty-two months in fine-grained French oak puncheons.
“…the pure Syrah of 2018 is as good as the Shiraz Viognier.” – Huon Hooke
A great vintage, but not without challenges.
A hail storm on January 9 gave us plenty to worry about, reducing what was already a small crop. Mercifully, the vines recovered well.
A brilliant ripening season followed, marked by a run of gorgeous weather in the crucial late summer and early Autumn.
14% Alc/Vol
pH 3.67
TA 6.0 g/L
Residual sugar 0.5 g/L
Sulfur Dioxide (free) 39 mg/L
Medium to deep red with a tint of purple, but it’s not a colour that’s designed to impress. The bouquet is spicy first, floral second, fruit driving it and some whole-bunch nuances contributing to its wonderful complexity.
Great now and even greater potential
The palate is medium-bodied and very elegant, stylish, polished and fluent. The tannins are mild and fine-grained, but certainly present; the fruit sweetness is there but not over-stated, and the spectrum of spice flavours is impressively wide.
The palate length is extraordinary and seamless all the way. A delicious, subtle style of shiraz that paddles its own canoe. It’s deceptively easy to enjoy now, but a few years on it promises to bring even more to the table. Great now and even greater potential.
The ’18 vintage was not without its worries with an early January hail storm reducing what was already a small crop. By any measure,
an extraordinary Australian shiraz
sourced from 600m in elevation with fruit so elegant, red-berried and aromatic and gentle in savoury spice. You could write a book about the tannins, teased out through extended maceration time, and so, so fine.
While this wine seems to play bridesmaid to its iconic sibling, under-estimate it at your own peril.
I could spin and swirl this around in the glass for hours, to fill the air with soft perfume and to delay the last sip. Tim Kirk’s affinity with cool-climate fruit on full and fine display.
This is exceptional
Delightfully fragrant – a gentle rolling wave of cloves, dark cherries, thyme and cured meats. None louder than the other. Elegant red cherry fruit rolls off a softly sinewed seam of tannins and pepper spice. This is exceptional. No more than medium-weight, though supremely intense. Time in the glass only adds to its perfume and poise. Just excellent.