Wandering Beeste Syrah
Beeste is the Afrikaans word for cattle and the greater portion of this wine hails from a farm high on Swartland's Kasteelberg Mountain, sharing the steep, stony slopes with Africa's famously skinny Nguni cattle. This is the point - it's about the bones of the beast, not the flesh. There is no jam and no heft - it's skinny, structured stuff with breadth, texture and a charmingly rustic gait.
South Africa
Food Match
It is skinny, structured stuff with breadth, texture and a charmingly rustic gait. Mineral, fine and uplifting, this vintage is another bony Beeste. 50% whole berry and 50% whole bunch. Once again it is the bright acidity and it's fine tannins in the stems that lift the ripe Syrah fruit to a freshness and vitality seldom found in Swartland. The mean, slatey soils give further minerality to the palate which finishes long, broad and bright. A truly delightful wine!
Tasting Notes
You know what to have with this… it's a proper Shiraz that deserves a wonderfully juicy, premium and a nice rare steak!
Production
The grapes for this wine are selected from vineyards from the slopes of the Kasteelberg and Paardeberg Mountains, each adding it's own intonation of blue and red fruit. Vines are between 15 to 25 years old and express the shale and granite rock on which they grow. The fruit selection is as much selected by the tannic structure of the stems than the grape itself, the intention being to capture that bright, vital acidity to balance the generous fruit. The grapes are picked in the early hours and trucked to the winery where further selection is made. 50% of the fruit is fermented whole bunch and 50% whole berry. The wine goes through wild yeast fermentation over a six month period in old French oak barrels. It is then racked off and settled, mostly into tank, for a further four months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.