Lismore Estate Vineyards Syrah 2020
£33.25
The wine
An exotic experience which shifts your mind to another place. Cassis, blackberry and cherry on the nose with hints of white pepper, ground herbs and the strong floral perfume of crushed violets. Light and elegant, but structured with a fresh acidity.
Syrah rather than Shiraz, and the choice of word signals the intent: this is made in the cooler northern Rhône register of pepper, violet and savoury red fruit rather than the sweet, jammy Australian style. Whole-bunch fermentation contributes the aromatic lift, and the cool Cape sites keep the alcohol moderate.
The producer
Lismore Estate Vineyards
View all Lismore Estate Vineyards winesSamantha O'Keefe left California in 2003, bought land in the foothills near Greyton in the Overberg, and planted vines where nobody had planted them before. Lismore Estate Vineyards grew up alongside her two young sons, and much of the early work she did herself.
The site is the point. The vineyards sit at around 300 metres in a cool corner of the Cape South Coast, chilled by winter snow on the mountains above and ventilated through summer, which gives a much longer, slower ripening season than the classic Cape regions further north. The wines that result are cool-climate in character, built on acidity and detail rather than power, and made almost entirely by hand.
In December 2019 a wildfire swept through the property and destroyed the cellar, the equipment and her home. She rebuilt from nothing, borrowed space, and kept making wine. The bottlings that have followed are widely held to be the best of her career, which says a good deal about both the site and the winemaker.
