BOSCHENDAL | Shiraz | 2016
syrah

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Tonight we are going to review a single varietal syrah wine from South Africa – Shiraz 2016 by Boschendal. In a world where bolder is better, syrah is the perfect choice, as it is darker and spicier than cabernet sauvignon and contains a high amounts of health-invigorating antioxidants. This syrah has been produced with grapes from vineyard sites around Stellenbosch, Elgin and Swartland that are owned by the estate, with the grapes from each vineyard fermented separately and barrel aged in french, 300-litre oak barrels for 14 months, but only after malolactic fermentation has occured. Syrah, also known as ‘Shiraz’, can be vinified in two major styles: old-world style and new-world style. The old-world syrah wines tend to have more acidity and earthy-herbaceous aromas, while the new-world shiraz wines are usually fruit-driven with lots of spice. But enough with all that theory – without further ado, let’s move on – straight to the wine tasting phase!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Very deep and noble ruby color, with elegant garnet shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruits and nuanced savory flavours: iron, ripe sour cherry, capocollo, blackcurrant, prosciutto, overripe blackberry, black plum, aronia berry, black cherry, black raspberry, dried black plum, black mulberry and some subtle but elegant hints of violets. An instant later the nose is filled with insistent notes of roasted oakwood, leather, cloves, black pepper, nutmeg and some nunced hints of tobacco.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and fine-grained tannin. It feels extracted, woody and well structured, with a supple and bold body. Despite its nuanced, new-world profile, that is fruity and expressive, the wine has an amazingly appealing, savory-meaty accent. This is a very noble, firm and complex shiraz/syrah wine, as it tastes fruity, spicy and well balanced, with a quite tannic grip on the mouthfeel, overwhelming acidity and a hot alcoholic warmth on the finish. Overall, the wine has a good balance between primary fruit aromas and oak-infused flavours – this is definitely one of the finest syrah/shiraz wines we’ve tasted so far.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and an elegant, fruity and grippy aftertaste.
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This is definitely an excellent wine of South Africa and, with a total of 92.4 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Conclusion: this is a very fine syrah wine – fruit-forward, yet savory and noble – one of the best we’ve reviewed so far – a wine that is still developing into the bottle, therefore we would advocate for 2 or 3 more years of bottle ageing. As we’ve already mentioned before, it is of paramount importance to understand a wine’s limits: there are wines that might gain some much desired elegance and finesse with age, but there are also wines that are elegant enough in their yearly stages and age will only take its toll on them. Older wines develop more complex and less fruity flavours – a fully mature wine can offer an explosion of amazingly nuanced scents that are virtually impossible to name – it is a pure, hedonistic pleasure. That said, we would recommend to pair this wine with slightly spicy meaty dishes, especially those that can be prepared on open fire, like for example a T-bone steak seasoned with spicy mix or a barbequed tomahawk steak. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

BOSCHENDAL
Shiraz | 2016

grape: | syrah |

region: South Africa | Stellenbosch, Elgin and Swartland

overall rating: | 92.4 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: excellent | (a must try)

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© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.