Te Whare Ra Single Vineyard Syrah 2020

Syrah is a labour of love for us here at Te Whare Ra. There are very few producers in the area (and in fact not many in the South Island) who make this variety - so it is a bit left field for Marlborough – but our site is warmer than many, which means we have the length of growing season required to ripen it, and our soil type (which has a higher clay content) is well suited too. It requires a lot of careful attention in the vineyard to make it work here– but the results are more than worth it.

Syrah is a labour of love for us here at Te Whare Ra. There are very few producers in the area (and in fact not many in the South Island) who make this variety - so it is a bit left field for Marlborough – but our site is warmer than many, which means we have the length of growing season required to ripen it, and our soil type (which has a higher clay content) is well suited too. It requires a lot of careful attention in the vineyard to make it work here– but the results are more than worth it.

We planted our first Syrah here on the home block in 2004 and have been producing it since 2007. This is our 11th release of Syrah as it was not released from the 2014, 2017 or 2018 vintages. This 2020 release is a blend of two of the different clones planted on the home vineyard. It exhibits the great fragrance, savouriness and suppleness that we love about cool climate Syrah and might just surprise a few doubters.

Viticulture is a blend of organic and regenerative techniques.

Our vineyard is hand-tended as much as humanly possible as we feel that a person can treat each vine individually and coax the best from it rather than a machine which does the exact same thing to each vine. It does mean more time and effort but we think it is more than worth it for the resultant quality.

Our aim is to grow great quality fruit and this starts with healthy soil or "Good Dirt" as we call it around here. If a vine has a growing in a healthy soil with active biology it can grow fruit which is balanced in all its components, is physiologically ripe and therefore requires minimal winemaking intervention once we get it in the winery. We use cover crops, cows and compost to achieve this. This also means a cropping level which is controlled and so we do selective crop thinning at a number of key times during the growing season.

All in French oak for 12 months, various different coopers, 33% new, balance in older oak.