Porseleinberg Swartland Syrah 2016

Porseleinberg Swartland Syrah 2016

Wine-Searcher Average Price of $88 per bottle...
$65 per bottle this week
$55 per bottle on orders of 6 or more bottles
$49 per bottle and FREE SHIPPING on 12 or more!

this is a pretty incredible deal on a very special wine.

This wine left me gobsmacked. Lifting your nose to a glass of this Porseleinberg is transporting. It instantly plucked me out of my cold garage and placed me on a windswept ridge, surrounded by watchfires. There's something ancient about the Syrah grape. It takes fire, spice, foraged fruit, wildflowers and dry brushlands, and puts them all together in one glass.

This comes from the warm, windswept Swartland region of South Africa. You could have told me this was from literally anywhere in the known world, and I would know that this is the Syrah grape. It’s reminds me of Cornas wines I love–roast meat, pepper, dried orange peel. A smokehouse full of delights. On the palate it's direct and powerful, but restrained. It leaves a long, silky finish that keeps your palate intrigued with notes of salted plum and dried rosemary.

"Porseleinberg is one of the greatest Syrah sites in the Southern Hemisphere" - Tim Atkin, MW

The bottle itself looks cool as heck. This unique lable is stamped on a vintage letterpress every vintage. Only a few hundred cases of this wine are made, and it's a pretty hard one to find in South Africa–so we're fortunate to get some to ourselves!

The choice for Porseleinberg to make just one wine is quite deliberate. This means that every year, winemaker Callie Louw's entire effort is focused towards low-yielding, highly concentrated Syrah that still comes off lithe and effortless on the palate.

This is a perfect red wine to stock up on for the start of grilling season. You'll want this for lamb, flank steak, smoked or grilled veggies, anything featuring black pepper or smoke as a flavor profile!

If you're a fan of Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Washington Syrah, Mencia, or anything else in the peppery, savory realm, this one is for you. I'll let Tim Atkin MW really pump this up, if my words weren't enough. This one got a 96, and he called it *cerebral* in another publication, and he awarded 100 points to two other recent vintages. Here's Tim's take on the 2016:

Score 96/100 · Drink 2022-2035, Tim Atkin MW

If ever a South African wine tasted of specific place it is Porseleinberg, the Cape’s answer to Cornas in terms of its dense, compact structure, but with a personality that is all its own: wild, savoury and unruly with tannins that can be demanding in their youth. Fermented with 100% whole bunches and aged in a combination of concrete eggs and foudres, it’s ripe, but not overly so, with notes of garrigue and tangerine and a stony, compact finish.