2023 Duet - Chilled Syrah
100% Syrah
Duet is a play between light and shade.
Here we utilise white (light) and red (shade) techniques to create a blend that has excellent balance and freshness. Each style highlights the strengths of the other.
A chilled light red perfect for summer.
Earthy, savoury characters are followed by boysenberry, dark cherry and pepper. A savoury smokiness starts the palate, and black plum, lavender and rosemary take over. A dry, crisp and fresh red wine with a beautiful subtlety of flavour and fine tannin.
Only 1524 bottles produced.
Details
Bridge Pā
The organically farmed TK Vineyard has a combination of hot daytime temperatures and relatively warm nights, perfectly suited to ripening Syrah. A free draining sandy loam covers a deep bed of alluvial gravels with interspersed layers of volcanic pumice.
Season
La Nina dominated the 2023 growing season, creating volatile weather patterns, and a cool Spring and Summer period that never saw a day over 30 degrees. Late January and early February saw some extremely wet periods culminating in cyclone Gabrielle. We were lucky that most of our vineyards escaped the worst and the vineyard guys were right on their game.
A somewhat Indian summer followed, which eased the pressure and allowed our fruit to ripen perfectly and slowly with fine and restrained flavours.
Winemaking
Syrah – 100%
50% of the Syrah was destemmed and tipped into an open fermenter. It was gently hand plunged as it progressed through natural ferment for approximately 20 days. It was then pressed to old barrels for malolactic ferment and ageing.
The other 50% was treated like a rose wine and pressed directly to old barrels on full solids. A natural ferment kicked off after a week, and when completed, the wine was topped and allowed to go through MLF.
Both parcels were aged at low temperatures for 3 months then racked and blended to finish ageing in tank together.
No fining or filtration. Minimal sulphur was added two weeks before bottling.
Alc - 11.5%
Earthy, savoury characters are followed by boysenberry, dark cherry and pepper. A savoury smokiness starts the palate, and black plum, lavender and rosemary take over.
A dry, crisp and fresh red wine with a beautiful subtlety of flavour and fine tannin.