Minimalist Wines, Stars in the Dark, Elim

Balanced fruit forward cool . Delicious

2020 vintage

Is it a young northern Rhone, is it a big and burly burgundy? Neither. It’s an elegant South African. This really shows what Syrah can be in the new world. Lots of dark fruit whilst retaining an elegance. A wonderful wine.

2020 vintage

Was excited to crack this open. So pleased I did. Very slightly disjointed on open, but became so integrated and impressive with a bit of air. Serious on the palate. With a lovely tension between the fruit and saline profile. Drinks like a top end northern Rhone Loved this

2020 vintage

Nose: blackcurrant, very enticing Palate: fruity undergrowth, in a good way

2020 vintage

Deep ruby in the glass with slight garnet edges. The Brett on this is quite strong, but shows much less on the palate where you’ll get a good concentration of black fruit (plum, dark cherry, blackberry) with underlying tones of wet earth and dried shrubs. Medium (+) body, everything in balance, moderate finish. Interesting wine, but the Brett puts me off from liking it more.

2020 vintage

Again a bit odd with some age. Nothing significant on the nose - quite stunted. Intensely floral on the pallet with cured meats - verging on damp kitchen cloth territory. Certainly not unpleasant but enough to make you wonder about the longevity of this bottle. By the end of the evening, slightly prunish. Decanted for 2 hrs…would recommend less.

2020 vintage

Sadly this wasn’t quite right. Raisiny with a short finish. Usually a great wine.

2020 vintage

Syrah - N Rhone vs SA with the N London Crew; 2/29/2024-3/1/2024 (La Cabotte) : Ha - once again this was served with the cheese, and once again it did a very good job. So clearly youthful - someone said bubblegum and candyfloss and they were right! But there's also depth and concentration - will be interesting to see how these age, I could imagine this being even better than the '10 Mullineux in ten years time...but also I could …

2020 vintage

Syrah at Cabotte with the TWS North London Group (Cabotte, London) : Fruit forward, youthful but not young necessarily, as approachable as some of the much older wines. This is full of life, rich fruit, a sweetness of candyfloss on the nose, and on the palate lovely acidity and sharpness with a certain joie de vivre (whatever that is in Afrikaans). Great stuff. My only question mark is really how long-lived it will be, but on the night that clearly …

2020 vintage

Young, juicy with good varietal character. Initially felt it was a bit soft on finish, but it did have decent acidity, especially the longer it was open. Will be interesting to see if it develops with age or is more of an early drinker. Very forward right now, probably a little too much sweet fruit for my tastes, if that calms down and the acidity comes more to the fore, this could become more interesting to me, but no idea …

2020 vintage

Gareth's N Rhone vs SA Syrah; 6/3/2023-6/4/2023 (La Cabotte) : This was oh so young but interestingly, it felt far less like infanticide than the 15 Mullineux did, there's a joyous intensity here and I'm not sure how it would age. One of my fellow diners pointed out that this went best with the cheese - fair point, and while it's in no way porty, i wonder if there's an underlying sweetness there.

2020 vintage

Syrah Battle: Northern Rhone vs South Africa (Cabotte) : Decanted around three hours. Seemed a bit of a gamble given the wine's youth, but we all wanted to try this and it did deliver on the night. Pure, concentrated and young, like a Syrah coulis, with violets and cream on the nose, and the sense that one could almost smell the grape pips themselves (this wine is c. 80% whole-bunch and c. 10% carbonic maceration). Bright and intense on the …

2020 vintage

3rd bottle of 24. Red berries, white pepper, violets. A great wine!

2020 vintage

This is getting along nicely, bags of white pepper, strawberries and cherry flavour boiled sweets, there’s a lovely hi toned lift in the aromatics, a few tannins on the tongue and a clean wave of acidity to clean up at the end.

2020 vintage

2nd bottle of 24. Outstanding! Still young, but a lovely Cote Rotie style Syrah. I look forward to following its evolution...

2020 vintage

A shade young but very much like a good N Rhone and nicely moderate alcohol levels to boot. Very tasty though not sure it's worth secondary mkt price.

2020 vintage

Sold for R290

2020 vintage

Not sure about this. Recognisably Syrah with nice leather, black pepper and raspberry but for me this bottle is lacking acidity and freshness. Very soft.

2020 vintage

This is really something. Whole bunch Syrah, cool climate, mid weight, Northern Rhone with a dash of salinity. I’m intrigued to know what it’ll be like in 5 years…I need to find more bottles.

2020 vintage

Medium body, good legs. A jewel like side to its colour. A lovely raspberry coulis nose and flavour, with some smoke and meaty tones, pretty resolved already, really good Syrah with more than a nod to the rhone, will be interesting to see the development

2020 vintage

The real thing. Cool, pebbly, blue Syrah. Spicy, notably notes of pepper, some meat notes mixed in. Fresh and lively, juicy fruit, tastes like Northern Rhône Syrah. Very young, but delicious today. Will surely be more interesting in 5 and 10 years time.

2020 vintage

Surprisingly approachable for such a young Syrah. Flavours of olive and dark fruit. Northern Rhone style. Highly recommended even at this young age.

2020 vintage

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