Swinney Syrah 2022

Over the years, Rob Mann has been steadily increasing his use of whole bunch in his red wines. This is especially true for his Syrah. By now you will know that this is a vigneron that seeks freshness, spice and structure in his reds—features he finds heightened in Syrah through careful use of whole bunches.

Swinney’s 2022 Syrah was hand-harvested from select parcels planted to a range of clones, including 470, Waldron and Jack Mann’s heritage mass-selection Syrah. Unlike the Grenache and Mourvèdre, the Syrah is trellised—although there are plans afoot for some single-stake Syrah in the future. In the warmer conditions of 2022, Swinney’s shade cloth played a pivotal role, creating soft, mottled light to protect the skins and lower the temperature in the bunch zone as well as preserving freshness, spice and varietal and regional typicity in the fruit.

In the winery, the berries were sorted and emptied into small wooden and stainless-steel fermenters via gravity. A well-integrated 28% whole-bunch component was included to build structure and texture, providing a robust frame for the lustrous Shiraz fruit. The 2022 spent 12 days on skins before being pressed directly to fine-grained, 600-litre demi-muids (7% new) for 11 months.