#224 Villion Syrah 2019
VIDEO CHAPTER INDEX:
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00:13 – WHAT IS THE CAPE SOUTH COAST?
00:30 – ZOOMING IN ON VILLION FAMILY WINES
00:50 – TECHNICAL DETAILS ON THE VILLION SYRAH 2019
01:35 – SASKO SAM’S GUIDE TO OAK TOASTING
03:41 – WHAT DOES THE WINE ACTUALLY TASTE LIKE?
04:36 – ANOTHER STAB AT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN “SHIRAZ” AND “SYRAH”
05:11 – WHY YOU SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO THE HANDRINKSSOLO WINE CHANNEL
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Enlightened winemaking
Winemaker Kobus Villion produces wine from his cellar on the Barton Vineyards, and shows an incredibly considered approach to his lighter-styled, fairly elegant wines.
When he mentioned that he only uses BURGUNDIAN toasted oak, we thought we’d take the opportunity to use ACTUAL toast to explain how oak affects flavour in wine. So look out for Sasko Sam’s Guide to Oak Toasting.
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Technical Specs
This particular wine is a Wine of Origin: Cape South Coast.
Large portions of Syrah is sourced from south-west-facing Elgin slopes (so really rather cool), along with some other parcels of Syrah sourced from Botrivier. Viognier is also from Elgin at about 200m ASL, picked a little bit riper than the Syrah, and pressed quite slowly and gently, which does result in a little more time on the skins in the press.
The blend is made up of 85% Syrah, 7% Viognier, 6% Grenache, 2% Mourvedre. All parcels are fermented separately, before being aged in Burgundian-toasted oak for 11 months.
While the red components are 2019 parcels, the Viognier is in fact a 2020, fermented more than a year after the red components.
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Tasting NOtes
👃🏼 A moderate nose of savoury olive brine, dried herbs, and a bit of petrichor (wink) set against sweeter blackcurrant fruit pastille, fresher blackberry fruit, and also some brighter sour cherry aromas, and a touch of florals.
👄 On the palate, the pepper spice, and herbal rocket leave intermingle with blackberry fruit, that sour red cherry element that we smelt earlier, and a lovely dried lavender element. The finish is gloriously savoury, as those olive elements emerge in between the lingering juicy blackberry fruit and candied cherry. Tannins are impressively fine, but between them and the elegant red cherry acidity possess enough structure to frame the whole thing quite nicely.
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