Stark Conde - Syrah 2018
Stark-Condé is located in Stellenbosch in the Jonkershoek Valley, South Africa . In 1989, when Hans and Midori Schroder bought the 'Oude Nektar' farm, the South African history books were being revised because the end of apartheid was imminent. Raised in Stellenbosch, Hans then left the country in the 1960s to study at university in Japan, where he met Midori. The couple made Tokyo their home for the next 25 years, where they raised 3 daughters. Fulfilling his dream of returning to Stellenbosch, Hans bought a 240 hectare farm in Jonkershoek and spent the next decade growing quality grapes. Eventually joined by his daughter Marie and her husband José , they launched Stark-Condé Wines together in 1998. The grapes are grown using organic farming practices .
This wine is made from Syrah , with a small amount of Viognier and Roussanne co-fermented to add flavor and finely textured tannin. It is a blend of three blocks of vines, the main vineyard being “Block 1”, which is very stony. The hand-harvested grapes are carefully sorted and crushed in small open fermentation vats. The must underwent a cold maceration for a few days before being inoculated with a mixture of national and imported yeasts from the Rhône . About 10% of the wine was fermented in whole bunches with its stalk. Regular and vigorous pigeages were carried out every 4 hours during the first half of the fermentation, then every 8 hours thereafter. The wine is then aged in 300-litre French oak ; mainly second, third and fourth filling with 10% new barrels . After 20 months of aging in barrels, the wine was bottled without fining and without filtration.
Grapes: 98% Syrah, 1% Viognier, 1% Roussanne
