Citadine Gruyere Syrah 2010

Description

Some people come to wine having grown up on a vineyard, or through a special bottle. Kirby Siemering (PhD in Microbiology) came to wine having lead a research team that sequenced the genome of a wine yeast. Despite the qualifications he holds, Kirby’s winemaking is not as technical as you might expect. All his wines display a feel for vineyard and vintage conditions – wild yeast and whole bunch fermentation feature strongly.

A Syrah aka Shiraz for lovers of savoury and textural wines. Kirby showed some courage and used 50% whole bunches in this wine to get a texture, colour and flavour profile that you don’t often find in Australia. It is both rich in blue and black Shiraz fruits but mellow and silky with a distinctive tannin profile that makes it dry but very moreish and cleansing too. This is a wine that develops and evolves in the glass and takes you on a journey. The best of this wine is yet to come too. It would benefit from a few years in the cellar… 30 odd if you subscribe to James Hallidays train of though.

Shiraz/Syrah – A bit of a chameleon, Shiraz can change how it looks depending on terroir and/or wine maker influence. The Syrah based wines of Northern Rhone are dry and austere while the Shiraz of Barossa is rich and fleshy. A variety that lends itself to long aging but can be drunk at any time of its evolution.