Reyneke, Syrah, Stellenbosch

(WSET tasting note) Nose: Clear, medium ruby Appearance: Clean, medium intense. Blackcurrant plumb, tomato leaf, wetstone, vanilla, cloves, strawberry, violets Palate: Dry, medium acidity, medium + ripe and smooth, rustic tannins. Medium alcohol, medium body and medium intensity. Tomato leaf, cooked plumb, cherries, blackcurrant, vanilla, cloves and coffee. Medium finish. This wine is of very good quality. Primary fruits are matched by the acidity and both secondary flavours and tannis add to the complexity. For this wine to be of …

An absolute blockbuster! Still very dark in colour with vigorous dark cherry on nose and palate. Rich and mouth-coating. Perhaps not a huge amount of finesse, but I'll keep my other bottle of this for three to five years to see how it develops.

Drank over two nights. on opening a touch of reduction but quite cherry fruity though with a touch of iron too. Not much complexity but clean and focussed. Young for sure. Better with a bit of air when the fruitiness receded. Better on night two, While served a little warm there were some lovely aromatics. Quite in the N Rhone now. My favourite Reyneke yet by some way.

These Syrah from South Africa are stellar. Let's see again in a few years.

Belle Syrah, un peu atypique mais ça fait changement. Assez long et bien costaud, poivre, viande, mures et un peu de silex. Long et un epointe de chauffe. Très bon.

This wine, which only costs £15 all in, received a score of 95 from Neil Martin and is described as 'stunning' in a Northern Rhone idiom & with a touch of 'garam masala' (new tasting term to me, but sounds intriguing), it's all from hand picked, biodynamicaly grown grapes...too good to be true ? To me this tasted more like a £15 bottle of wine than a 95 point bottle of wine: there was a hardness where I want succulence, …

Pure and direct, this is a beautifully made expression of Syrah showing plenty of raspberries, sezchaun pepper and green olives. Concentrated, spunky yet entirely civilised. Absolutely humming with panache and quality for the money.

I like this, medium body. Gets extra points for being organic!

Decent Shiraz , recommended by friend of Tai (allen?)

Haskell Vineyards Tasting Session (Haskell Vineyards) : Mid+ red-black. Lifted nose with menthol (1-8-senional eucalyptus), potpourri, jube, liquorice sticks. Intense, ripe almost a sandalwood element. tasted blind and felt more Aussie than SA. Texture was rich, sweet gravelly tannins. A little overripe to be fair and then a smoky element to push it back to SA, but this didn't distract. Later pepper, fair length.

Continues in the classy, high acid, high tonned style of reyneke. More spice than fruit, touch of SA funk but not over board. Adding character to the Syrah instead of just being all SA. Long acid driven finish.

This bottle had a much more astringent finish and lacked the complexity of previous bottles.

Not decanted. Attractive nose, restrained dark berry fruit, very peppery, lots of mountain herb/shrub nuance and complexity. Medium-weight palate, Asian spice, black currants and plum. Very nice.

Jord, pepper og lær. Veldig mye tanninner, fin struktur. Grei valuta for pengene.

Quite a light nose, just a hint of blackcurrant fruit. Bright and ripe in the entry but then a big hit of fine but very grippy tannins. The fruit is sweet with a lifted floral note and a bit of bloody-ness on the finish.

Quite a restrained nose. Bright and ripe with plump black fruits and fine but grippy tannins. A little woody tobacco on the back of the palate.