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.
Vibrant aromas of black cherry notes and violet florals on the nose. Fruits of the forest with a touch of black pepper flow into a savoury earthy mid-palate. Blackberry and cedar notes extend to a tightly bound wine with excellent drive.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for another 10-15 years.
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Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2019
A vintage of variability, contrasts and many different phases of weather through the growing season. A normal to warm start to the season was interrupted by a cold snap and snowfall mid-November. Weather over flowering was patchy, but overall flowering was successful. An oddity during summer this year was warmer nights and cooler days. this gives the appearance of a warmer season than it really was. There was a significant amount of early season rainfall, right through to the end of January. Cool and very dry conditions prevailed through February when verasion occurs - slowing that phase of ripening down. The heat and regular rainfall did reappear in March and then finally a very cool and lengthy final ripening phase through April.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
The Syrah was the last fruit harvested for the season on the 9th 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 5 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. 13.7% T/A 5.8gL-1 pH 3.69 Residual Sugar <1 gL-1