LVDO Clarendon Light Dry Red Syrah 2025

From the winemaker -

In late 2023, Toby and Emmanuelle Bekkers invited me and a small group of McLaren Vale winemakers for a casual benchtop tasting. We looked at Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet wines newly made from their Clarendon Vineyard Estate. The tasting sheet indicated a small parcel of Shiraz grapes available for sale from the 2024 vintage on for a long-term agreement. The red wine made from the top block located on pure schist with a thin topsoil tasted breathtaking. Fragrant, elegant, linear, yet packed with flavour and tension. Result of a cool, elevated, and terraced vineyard in a warm region. I knew I found the missing part for my ambitious rosé project! The 2025 vintage delivered exceptional quality grapes, and while hand-picking bunches, I decided to dedicate a small batch to red wine. Archives from the 19th century praised the aromatic and elegant red wines made from this site that also had remarkable aging potential. Hence my contemporary take as a Light Dry Red, in other words, a fine Syrah with a nod to Pinot Noir and Grenache.

Hand-harvested and sorted grapes were fermented as 30% whole-cluster with 2 daily "pour-overs" for gentle extraction. The free run was drained off after 72-days of extended maceration. Matured in a 450 L puncheon on fine lees for 10 months. After racking, the wine rested in tank for 1 month and was bottled with 30 ppm SO2.