Tasting Notes
Reserve yours allocation now, wine to arrive later in the year. 98pts "Porseleinberg is one of those wines where the analytical numbers don't make sense, as it has a pH of 4.06 but retains remarkable freshness and acidity, partly from the 100% whole bunch fermentation. Aged in large Stockinger foudres and 10% concrete eggs, it’s a denser wine than the 2023 release, with stony intensity, aromas of clove, fennel and tomato leaf, blackberry and North African spice flavours and seductive tannins. One of the New World’s greatest Syrahs. 2028-40" Tim Atkin MW
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There are few more sought-after South African wines synonymous with serious quality than the Syrah from Boekenhoutskloof owned Swartland property, Porseleinberg. Producing just one wine from the inhospitable, rugged, windblown vineyards planted on harsh blue schist soils at the top of the mountain, farmer winemaker Callie intends to make a wine with sense of place and time. As he says - this place is hardcore - with almost no top soil, and perilously sharp rocks protruding from the steep slopes. One of the most distinctive things about the Porseleinberg Syrah is its unusual label, which is created by hand on an Original Heidelberg press, the smallest motorised printer ever produced by this iconic company. Since the 2018 vintage, he has adopted one of the key winemaking techniques he took from his time working at Domaine Jamet - of submerging the cap (the solid mass of grape skin, stems and seeds that naturally float to the top during the fermentation,) a traditional method widely used in Europe in the 19th century, and by California's Ridge Vineyards since the '50s. It's this that has perhaps altered the style of Porseleinberg from the early vintages with their hard-as-nail tannins that took 10 years to come around, to the hauntingly beautiful perfumed style of today.