Porseleinberg Syrah 2019

By , 22 November 2021

Comment

3

Due to the complex interplay of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, some wines come to have more mystique than others and the Syrah from Swartland property Porseleinberg is one of those.

A stylistic shift has been evident for some time, the wine in earlier years appearing severely tannic but more recently winemaker Callie Louw seems to be pursuing more fruit density and the 2019 comes across as particularly polished.

The nose shows red and black berries, lavender and fynbos as well as some white pepper while the palate is flavour packed and surprisingly luscious – good fruit expression, bright acidity and fine tannins, the finish gently savoury. Many will appreciate the refinement of this release but it could be argued that it lacks a little tension.

CE’s rating: 93/100.

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Comments

3 comment(s)

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    Colin | 2 December 2021

    I see Vinous’s Neal Martin just gave this 96. Fortunate that foreign critics like our wines better than the local ones.

    GillesP | 22 November 2021

    Tried this 2019 at a Wine Cellar dinner before release. As young as it was I thought it was so promising and accomplished. Was for me such a step forward from earlier vintages. I think the style is evolving beautifully.

    Tierseun | 22 November 2021

    I went to visit Callie on the farm a few weeks ago and tasted the 2017, 2018, 2019 and unlabelled 2020 alongside each other.

    The 2019 was my favourite, even compared to the much heralded 2018; it has more elegance to it. Perhaps if a critic had to score the two the 2018 would come out higher, but for pure pleasure the 2019 did it for me.

    Given the high scores this site often gives Syrahs from the Swartland, I feel you’re underscoring it at 93 points. It puts a world-class wine in a bracket with far inferior examples, in my opinion. But then again Platters only gave it 94 points, so perhaps you’ve got a point?!

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