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De Bortoli Yarra Valley Reserve Syrah 2007 This is made from the grapes grown on De Bortoli's oldest Yarra Valley Shiraz vines - on the hill at Dixon's Creek Winery. Remarkable complexity and depth - it's a wine to marvel at as you drink. It tastes of grilled meat, charcuterie, toast, coffee beans, blackberries and smoky spice - in terms of complexity, this is one with the lot. It has fantastic tannin structure, assertive but elegant, it's a wine of certainty. Drink 2011-2022 97 points Campbell Mattinson & Gary Walsh, The Big Red Wine Book 2009/10" It doesn't get much better than this classic red crafted from hand-picked fruit from Yarra Valley vineyards first planted in 1971. Perfumed and textured with layers of plum and berry fruit, intense spice and peppery characters, clever oaking and silky tannins." Kerry Skinner, Illawarra Mercury, August 2009 Region Yarra Valley (Dixons Creek) Appearance Vibrant dense red/purple colour Bouquet Rich dark berry with white pepper and spicy overtones Palate The palate has rich structure with length and texture. Flavours of berry fruit, spice and black olives are evident. Vintage Conditions 2007 was a very dry season with cropping levels extremely low producing quite flavoursome wine. Winemaking Syrah was sourced from our original 1971 plantings which are oriented to the west in a north-south row orientation. Fruit was hand-harvested in the cool of the morning into 8kg buckets and delivered direct to the winery, where it was hand-sorted to ensure only perfect material continued on to the fermenters. A combination of intact whole bunches and destemmed fruit was carefully tipped into 2 x 4.5 tonne fermenters. The fruit underwent natural fermentation via indigenous yeasts with only the occasional plunge toward the end of fermentation to prevent over-extraction. The wine was racked by gravity to barrel for 10 months in 1 to 3 year old French oak. The wine was then racked by gravity and filled to bottle without fining or filtration. Wine Analysis Alc/Vol : 13.0 % pH : 3.60 TA : 6.0 g/L Cellaring This is a detailed ‘Old World Style’ Syrah that will reward mid to long term cellaring under favourable conditions (constant 14°C – 16°C). Suggested Cuisine Try with Rare Aged Riverina Angus Beef General Characteristics Dry Medium Bodied De Bortoli's Yarra Valley High There's been a cultural and winemaking change at De Bortoli's Yarra Valley winery in the past few years - and the thing is, the wines were good to start with. But during the past year, a stream of quite exceptional wines has poured forth: sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, rosé, chardonnay, shiraz. Steve Webber, winemaking chief at De Bortoli Yarra Valley, says that "2002 was the turning point. We looked at what we were doing, and we were totally unhappy; at our results, at how we were going about it, at where we seemed to be heading. From that moment on, we've moved away from herbicides, not for certification, just for us, just to have healthier land to grow our vines in. We've graded all our (vineyard) sites: if the vines were on an A-grade site, were they producing A-grade fruit? In some cases we've changed viticulture, in others we've grubbed the vines out totally and replanted." De Bortoli decided it was better to spend on the vineyard than on the winery. Webber says it was about making the fruit better, not throwing in more oak: "All of this is a whole change of philosophy for us - and it's working. You want to see the [vineyard] blocks that have been changed over to organics, the organic blocks seem to want to balance themselves; the conventional blocks are far more vigorous. And the soil is better. "We're not fooling ourselves" he adds. "We know about Yarra Valley cabernet, we know that...pinot noir still has a lot of potential. And we know that shiraz in the future could be better than the lot of them." Campbell Mattinson, Gourmet Traveller Wine, April/May 2006