Cool Climate Syrah from the Pyrenees

Along with our Northern Hope Pinot Noir, this year we're pretty pumped to be making a cool climate syrah thanks to our friends at Michel Chapoutier in the Pyrenees. Our site in the Macedon Ranges is a little too cold to ripen this variety so we've looked further a field to find this magical cool climate site.

The Pyrenees foothills and ranges create a remarkable diversity of microclimates and soils providing a wealth of options for winemakers like ourselves. The cool weather patterns and unique soil in this region are an ideal place for Chapoutier’s biodynamic winegrowing philosophy, and something we're very excited to experiment.

We decided to pick the fruit around the 12.5% Baume mark as we want to achieve a style of syrah that's a little lighter and racier than most. Avoiding some of the more jammy and higher alcohol characteristics that Shiraz can be known for. Selecting parcels from the coolest part of the Chapoutier site, we set about loading up our vats on a day which turned out to be stinking hot. Thankfully the picking crew were on hand to help us pick our 2 tonnes of grapes - they were incredible!

It's going to take some time before we get to release this little bad boy but we look forward to sharing our progress and the the forthcoming wine making stages. Previously all our wines have been made with the help of our friends at the Lyons Will Estate.... this time we're on our own making it at our very teeny tiny winery / shed @Northern Hope..... (add dramatic music here haha). This is going to be epic!!!

Oh and speaking of epic.... our Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir 2019 is now available, check it out!