Critics reviews
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate - eRobertParker.com #215 Oct 2014
If you have to choose, then use nefarious tactics to horde this Syrah – it is simply mind-blowing from the molecular aromatic flirtation when you come into its range to its palate-ravishing flavour when you are knee deep in its joys. This is an inky and powerful wine, with a splash of Mourvèdre at its core, and yet it has more levity and poise than anything I have tasted this year out of the Rhône. Winemaker Alex Starey has been on my radar since he released his first Keermont wines a few years ago and I have had my laser-sights on him ever since. This is a game changing portfolio of wines. Superstardom awaits this modest, young man of wine.
Matthew Jukes - matthewjukes.com - MoneyWeek - 21 Nov 2014
Nature and all things natural are major themes at this property straddling the Helderberg and Stellenbosch mountains. Indigenous vegetation, eradicated of aliens, beautifies much of it, with less than 30 hectares of scattered high-altitude vineyards. Riverside, a chenin vineyard planted in 1971 and Uitkyk, sauvignon planted in 1988, are the oldest; the rest joined since 2005. Owner Mark Wraith and his family, as well as winemaker Alex Starey, believe in non-interventionist winemaking, allowing spontaneous fermentation, with no fining or filtration.
Platter - wineonaplatter.com
About this WINE
Keermont Vineyards
Keermont intends to create wines that reflect the beautiful place from which they come and the particular year’s vintage conditions. The wines are made as naturally as possible with very little vineyard irrigation and minimal intervention in the winery.
The estate has been owned by the Wraith family since 2003. Two thousand and five saw the start of a significant vineyard-planting programme on lands that had been fallow for several years. Seventeen hectares were planted over four years to add to an existing eight hectares of older vineyards. Keermont’s official maiden vintage came in 2007.
The farm is high up in the picturesque Blaauwklippen Valley, or Paradyskloof (Paradise Valley) in South Africa. Due to the steepness of the terrain, the altitude climbs 200m within the 1.7km length of the farm, and the vineyards are planted between 250m and 400m above sea level. Thus, the vines planted over these different terrains produce wines with good complexity and various flavors. In addition, the proximity to False Bay and the Indian Ocean also moderates the climate in the vineyard.
Winemaker Alex Starey oversees the vineyards and makes the estate’s wines. Employed at the start of the redevelopment of the farm in 2005, he has traveled and worked in wine regions, including Maipo Valley in Chile, Penedès and Priorat in Spain, and St-Emilion and Côte-Rôtie in France.
Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch is South Africa’s best-known wine region, producing a wide variety of wines from leading estates, even though it accounts for less than 20 per cent of the country’s total production. Designated wards within the wine region are Jonkershoek Valley, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch, Bottelary, Devon Valley and Papegaaiberg.
At 17,500 hectares, Stellenbosch remains the Cape's most famous and important fine wine district, thanks to its proximity to Cape Town, to the cooling influences of False Bay, its mountainous (ie Helderberg, Simonsberg), granitic topography and its centres of learning such as Elsenburg Agricultural College.
It's notable for the refinement of its Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, especially from the likes of Glenelly Estate, Keermont Vineyards Oldenburg Vineyards, Raats Family and Anwilka
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
It’s rare for serious Syrah such as this to leap out of the glass in such a way – this is a very lively wine, with violet and roses all over. Behind this on the nose, and then on the palate, there is a generous swathe of Northern Rhône style Syrah fruit and a hearty garrigue character. There is a genuine Rhône feel to this: the tannins have a dark granitic texture which softens into the finish. This is one of the most impressive, enjoyable New World Syrahs I’ve tasted in a long while. Impressive and very well put together.
Gary Owen, Fine Wine Account Manager
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