Kershaw Wines Clonal Selection Elgin Syrah 2019
£41.25
The wine
A subtle, precise style of Syrah built on fine tannins that draw out harmony and freshness, with flavours of black fruits, iodine and ground white peppercorns.
Elgin Syrah is about as cool-climate as South Africa gets. At this altitude the grape ripens slowly and keeps its acidity, giving a wine of moderate alcohol, fine tannin and pronounced white-pepper character. Kershaw selects specific clones rather than treating Syrah as a single entity, which is unusual anywhere.
The producer
Kershaw Wines
View all Kershaw Wines winesRichard Kershaw was born in Sheffield and trained as a chef before wine took over. He travelled widely, settled in South Africa in 1999, and by 2009 was Group Winemaker at Mulderbosch and Kanu. He passed the Master of Wine examination in 2011 and founded Kershaw Wines the following year, making him one of very few MWs anywhere who make wine of their own.
The project is unusually methodical. Kershaw works clone by clone and site by site, in tiny quantities, across the cool corners of the Cape. The Clonal Selection wines come from Elgin, an upland apple-growing valley whose altitude and Atlantic influence make it one of the coolest viticultural areas in the country. The G.P.S. Series maps individual sites further afield, and the Deconstructed wines go further still, isolating a single clone on a single soil type.
That last point matters when choosing a bottle: a Deconstructed wine names both the clone and the geology, so SH22 on Bokkeveld shale is a specific thing, not a house style. Production is small and demand consistently exceeds it.
