Astrolabe Southern Valleys Syrah 2024

In Marlborough, our season starts with Pinot noir, and we have always been longing for a late season red grape variety to complement our range. Jeff and Vanessa Hammond’s Beacon Hill sits adjacent to their Comelybank vineyard, our foundation block for Pinot noir. It is an early site, which lends itself well to a late-ripening variety like Syrah. I felt that a site in the Southern Valleys was more likely to be successful than in one of the later ripening sites in Marlborough. There is an ancient riverbank which shelters part of the vineyard from cool winds, and a block of Syrah was planted to take advantage of this warmer mesoclimate.

This is a new grape variety for us, though I see great potential for Marlborough Syrah. We are big fans of Côte-Rôtie, of northern Rhône Syrah. We wanted to have a crack at doing it ourselves. I think Syrah is a great cool climate grape variety. The Syrah wines from Marlborough have a finer tannin structure, more peppery notes and brambly fruit than the bigger examples that are produced in some warmer regions. This wine is beautifully perfumed and floral with ripe berry fruit flavours, best complemented with the right amount of new oak to deliver spice but not obscure our Marlborough fruit vibrancy.

The vineyard is cropped moderately and well-manicured. Fruit is well-exposed, and the wines deliver excellent colour, even when using the same gentle extraction programme we would use for Pinot noir. In the winery, I treat it just like Pinot because I want it to be bright and aromatic and not over extracted. I use a five day cold soak, daily manual punch-downs and pressing off at dryness. The wine went to a mixture of barrique and hogshead with 20% new oak for 10 months’ barrel maturation.

2024 vintage

96 POINTS
”Striking hues of purple and dark red with a ruby and pink rim lead to a bouquet of purity and ripeness, perfumed scents of violets and ripe red berries with blackcurrant and dark raspberry flesh then a layer of quietly spoken barrel spice and earthy qualities of silty light clay ideas. A dry, taut and poised wine touches the palate first, releasing slowly flavours of fleshy salivating red berry fruits, spice and blackcurrant to reflect and mirror the bouquet. Tannins deliver a firm youthful tension enhanced by the backbone of acidity and saline ideas on the finish. A flick of violet completes the tasting. A delicious wine with best drinking from late 2027 through 2035+.” APR 22
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Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier