VASSE FELIX PREMIER SYRAH 2022

Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"A modern, elegant, cool climate style crafted from our premier parcels of southern Margaret River Syrah (Shiraz). Wild fermented, with a portion of whole bunch fermentation and carbonic maceration, this aromatic, fineboned Syrah is luscious, spicy and beautifully complex, representing the future of our favourite ‘alternative’ Margaret River red varietal.

Aromas of fresh bright raspberry fruit with wet forest floor and a few fresh mushrooms rising. Some cherry wood with a hint of hickory and fresh peat. Luscious entry into the palate with good polish building to a firm but fine dry finish. Lovely raspberry coulis with a few raspberry pip flavours linger on a fine, fresh, stemmy, mineral finish.

Our more southern spicy parcels of fruit and the percentage of carbonic maceration and whole bunch fermentation create our vibrant, complex and refreshingly drinkable Syrah style. A portion of the fruit was carefully tipped into oak vats as whole bunches. The vats were closed and f illed with CO2 without a berry being touched for 7-9 days, causing an enzymatic fermentation in the uncrushed berry. The fruit was then foot stomped and allowed to complete fermentation with wild yeast. The balance of the fruit was fermented as whole berries without stems in Stainless Steel Fermenters with open lid and oxidative handling and only the wild yeast was allowed to ferment. The fermented small batches were pressed to only older French Oak Barriques for 12 months to ensure the wine retains its elegant fine fruit perfumes. The 2022 vintage is elegant and fresh but deep ripe power underlying in a moderate season"

Reviews for previous vintages below…

94/100 Jane Faulkner, James Halliday's Wine Companion (2021 Vintage)
"Not the easiest vintage in Margs, but you wouldn’t know it with this buoyant yet savoury offering. If anything, it needs more time in the bottle as it’s highlighting the exuberance of youth with its poppy dark fruits all spiced and tarted up with cranberry juice flavour. As it opens in the glass more layers are revealed, the texture of fine sandy tannins and lots of them, there’s a stony quality in a positive way as this is still tight. Savoury, complex and appealing."

93/100 James Suckling (2021 Vintage)
"Inviting aromas of cracked black pepper, grilled rosemary, grilled meat and crushed plums. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins. Fresh and linear with green tobacco finish. Lovely spicy character with a bit of chew."

95/100 Erin Larkin, Wine Companion (2020 Vintage)
"100% wild ferment, 20% carbonic maceration, 13% whole bunches. Matured for 11 months in seasoned French oak. Iridescent in the glass, and all silky flow on the palate. The 2020 vintage was responsible for a tranche of wines that taste, frankly, effortless. This is one of those wines. Gorgeous, with all the push and pull of exotic spice, Chambord, orange zest and crispy nori you could possibly want. Glorious."

95/100 Ray Jordan, The West Australian (2020 Vintage)
"The fruit for this wine is largely from southern Margaret River vineyards. It’s made in a slightly softer and more restrained style to the standard shiraz from Vasse Felix. Beautifully aromatic and perfumed with a spicy dried herb mix. Carbonic maceration has been adopted to contribute to the light perfumes and effortless palate weight and smoothness. The tannins are fine and chalky and the oak brilliantly handled to compliment. It’s a wine that almost redefines Margaret River shiraz."

91+/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, November 2021 (2020 Vintage)
"It’s hard not to admire the balance of this wine. It’s intricately meshed with tannin too, which in combination with cherry-cranberry-plum fruit creates a clear, medium-weight, elegant impression of quality. There are fragrant herb and twig-like notes here too – it’s inherently complex – though the wash of fresh, just-ripened fruit remains at the helm. This wine is good now in a super-young way; it should improve."