Amphora Syrah 2023

Wine Profile

This small cap release is a tribute to how wine was made in ancient times. Using a hands-off winemaking approach, this is our 11th year of working with the 500L terracotta clay Amphorae. The result is a wine that challenges you to define it to a specific region or style

Tasting Notes

The 2023 vintage offers a complex bouquet of chocolate covered raspberries with berries and cream along with notes of eucalyptus, fennel and olive brine. The palate is bold with upfront tannins and a long spicy finish. There is a mix of red and black fruit, with slate, clove and stewed plums on the finish. The wine balances ripe tannins with a juicy finish that makes it perfect for your cellar. Drink in 2025 through 2034.

Winemaking notes

The 2023 Amphora Syrah is a co-fermented blend of 96% Syrah and 4% Viognier. At harvest, we placed whole berry Syrah grapes into three 500L terracotta and closed the lids. After 10 days, the natural wild ferment began at a low temperature and slowing progressed for 6 weeks. This hands-off approach resulted in slower extraction from the grape skins, while the tannin worked
as a natural antioxidant to the wine. The wine was left in the Amphorae fully untouched for 6 months. The wine was then pressed off, bottled and hand waxed. Having worked with the Amphorae for multiple vintages, the winemaking team is now starting to find the right amount of time on skins, hoping to give you unique, yet approachable wines.

Vintage notes

Okanagan Valley vineyards experienced a season like no other in 2023. The end of the 2022 season was abnormally warm, going from summer weather at the end of October to winter overnight and a deep freeze in December which adversely affected the plants. Early bud dissections revealed extensive damage and the resulting yields were very low, especially in our Syrah, Malbec, and Semillon plantings.  

Although the Okanagan Valley had a slight delay to the growing season with cooler than average weather through April and May, the weather very quickly changed to a long, extended period of hot, dry days through the balance of the summer. We saw bud break at our Naramata vineyard at the beginning of May and kicked off our harvest by picking the first fruit on August 23rd for our traditional method sparkling wine. This was a full month earlier than vintage 2022, which was a very late and more moderate summer. Most of our varieties ripened a week or two earlier than normal due to the warm weather and lower yields. The low yields also brought good concentration to the flavours and ripe tannins for our Bordeaux-styled reds.

Vineyards

Sourced from Bearcub Vineyard and Perfect Hedge Vineyard in Osoyoos