Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Syrah 2020
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Syrah 2020 is handcrafted in very limited quantities from our Bendigo vineyard in Central Otago. One of the few Syrah's you'll find from a region so famous for Pinot Noir.
A dark garnet, almost inky Syrah. Leather, blackcurrant pastille and a touch of raspberry leaf from the cool season introduce the wine. Spicy, gamey and savoury flavours on the palate go toe to toe with dark brooding fruit. Some peppercorn, wood smoke, cassis and violet notes pop up on the finish to give a lift and vibrancy.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for another 10-15 years.
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Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2020
2020 sets a new benchmark for tricky seasons, but ultimately produced wines of exceptional quality. The growing season was introduced by a wet, cold and windy spring. These conditions continued through our key flowering and fruit set periods in October and December. Disturbed weather patterns continued right through January, and whilst the weather settled in February, it was not its usual scorching self. We experienced cool periods through both veraison and ripening, delaying and then slowing down our harvest. Ultimately these conditions resulted in superb fruit condition with no disease pressure, and small berries bursting with flavour.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
The Syrah was the last fruit harvested for the season on the 12th May. There are 4 different clonal combinations in the vineyard and these were all harvested together. There were two different ferments of Syrah, one was fully de-stemmed; the second contained 30% whole clusters. The must underwent 7 days of cold maceration, being hand plunged once daily. The ferments were heated after this and both fermented with indigenous yeasts. The ferments lasted for an average of 10 days during at which time they were hand plunged once daily with the temperature peaking at 30°C. One of the ferments was pressed off at 2 Brix whilst the other stayed on skins for a further 7 days post-dryness and was plunged occasionally with increasing ease. When the wine tasted in harmony it was pressed off to barrel where it resided on full lees for 12 months. It underwent malolactic fermentation in the spring, was racked out of barrel in late autumn and was not filtered or fined prior to bottling.
Alc. 14% T/A 5.8gL-1 pH 3.92 Residual Sugar 0 gL-1