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DMZ Syrah
Winery information: De Morgenzon's (the morning sun) slopes rise from about 200m to nearly 400m above sea level and the views embrace Cape Town, Table Mountain, Cape Point, Cape Hangklip, the Hottentots Holland mountains, Helderberg and Simonsberg with the ocean as a backdrop. De Morgenzon likes to be known as 'a garden vineyard'. In Spring specially chosen wildflowers flourish between our vines. The thinking is that a biodiverse and ecologically sensitive environment produces infinitely better grapes and the beauty of the gardens is captured in every bottle of our wine. e Baroque music is piped through our vineyards 24x7 in the belief that the power of music positively influences the ripening process.
Viticulture: These vineyards are situated on the farm De Morgenzon in the Stellenboschkloof. Soils are mostly weathered granite which give the resultant wines a natural exuberance and youthful vigour. Planted in 2004 the trellised vineyard is managed to ensured natural high acidity and full flavour concentration. The yield was 8 tons per hectare.
Vinification: The Syrah was manually harvested and destalked into stainless steel fermentation tanks. The juice and skins were left for two days to cold soak before fermentation. A small percentage of bunches were fermented without destalking. Natural fermentation followed with a slight extended maceration on the skins to stabilize the colour and give the wine palate length. Fermentation temperatures were kept between 22°C and 27°C with a combination of punch downs and gentle pump overs to extract colour and flavour from the skins. After
fermentation the wine was pressed off the skins and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel. The wine spent a further 11 months in barrel, predominantly French oak (15% new wood).
Tasting Note: Deep, purple core with wide, bright, bluish tinged rim. Rich, ripe, berry fruit nose with lots of ripe, red plum. Some floral notes in the background including
violets and spring blossoms. Rich and full in the mouth with tremendous youthful vigour. Layers of berry fruit with developing spice including pepper, cinnamon and vanilla. Oak hardly shows et it must have done it’s job to have such elegance and roundness at this early age. Very attractive now yet loads of development potential.
Every day serving suggestion: Bright, old gold. Sweet vanilla and hints of almonds on the front of the nose with clean tropical fruit to follow. Delicate oak support. Rich and full in the mouth with layers of full fruit flavours including apricot and white peach and always the vanilla backing. Spicy, brisk finish will lend to a few more years of bottle development.
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