2003 Hedges Family Estate Single Vineyard Limited Syrah
Tasting notes
Classic dark syrah color. Initially, meaty and slightly smokey. Then beautiful, vibrant blackberry and cassis fruit aromas with slight floral and perfume notes, followed by slight toast, vanilla and spice aromas. The mouthfeel is full and round with a great balance of dark, vibrant fruit and smoke and toasty, spicey oak flavors. Typical of syrah, the acid is softer and the wine has a round, lush mouthfeel. Typical of Red Mountain, this wine is still structured and intense. This is great syrah!
Grapes are from the Red Mountain Appellation vineyard of Bel’ Villa. All of this wine was aged for 19 months in barrels, 80% of which were French oak and 20% Hungarian oak. 60% of the oak was new and 40% was 1 year old.
Harvest Notes: Fairly consistent temperatures during bloom and set led to a nice, even set. A typically warm summer led into a late August early September ripening period of several days that were hot and dry followed by several cool days, causing sugar levels to spike up then drop to more “normal” levels. This pattern repeated itself, then changed to more typical extended fall ripening conditions of warm days and cool nights in later September. Our philosophy of picking at optimum flavor maturity caused us to ignore the higher brix early on and our patience was rewarded with later development of wonderfully concentrated ripe flavors that carried over into our wines. The wines tend to have higher alcohol but balanced acid and the Red Mountain terroir of the vineyard our grapes come from provide intensity in flavor and aroma. Another great vintage for those patient enough to let the grapes achieve optimum maturity.
| Vintage | 2003 |
| Varietal | Syrah |
| Varietal Composition | 100% Syrah |
| Appellation | Red Mountain |
| Acid | 6.8g/L |
| PH | 3.75 |
| Alcohol | 14.20% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Cases Produced | 237 cases |
