La Bri Syrah 2014

La Bri Vineyards is beautifully positioned in the south west corner of the Franschhoek Valley. Blessed with an enchanting Manor House and cutting edge winery and well tended vineyards, Irene Waller the General Manager and Cellarmaster makes a superb range of award winning wines.

Each wine is cleverly labelled with Cape flora which in the case of the La Bri Syrah 2014, is in fact, a variety of scented herbs which are reflected in the wine.  Fennel, wild thyme, rosemary and oregano. And violets!

Winemaker Irene Waller in the Cellar

Cleverly Irene has co-fermented the 97% Shiraz and the 3% Viognier from grapes picked during March of the vintage year.  The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel and then spent two years in 225 litre French oak barrels, 32% of them new, the balance previous fill.

Shiraz grapes on the vine

It looks like
Bottled under natural cork closure, as indeed are all La Bri Wines, in a Burgundy shaped bottle with the ‘herby’ label.  In the glass, it is a plush plum purple at the core which pales out to purple garnet at the rim.

It smells like
A generosity of plums and black berries, grinds of white pepper and apple mint.

It tastes like
Sappy from entry, with full fruit. Refreshing gentle acidity and tannins well interwoven into the fruit, the herbage. Well rounded mid palate and a great ending.

Meeta K Wolff’s Middle Eastern style Buddha Bowl

It’s good with
Just made for food. We’ve had the Ramen Bowls, then for a short while the Hawaiian Poke