Höllesgrund Syrah 2021 Weninger Organic Wine

Nutritional information per 100 ml

Contains negligible amounts of fat, saturates, protein and salt.

Syrah

Syrah undoubtedly comes from France. Its resemblance to the name of the ancient Persian city of Shiraz in present-day Iran gave rise to a legend that crusaders brought the grape back from their raids. Scientists disproved this in 2000, when DNA analysis showed its parents, red Dureza and white Mondeuse Blanche, to be thoroughly French. From France, this sun-loving yet undemanding vine found its way around the world. Today, winegrowers cultivate it in Australia, South Africa, California, Chile, Argentina and Sicily, for example, although overseas it often goes by Shiraz. Syrah or Shiraz wines are weighty and fruit-led, with characteristic berry and chocolate aromas. Yet the wines differ in more than spelling. Australian grapes in the McLaren Valley, for example, have a good 450 mm of rainfall, while French vines on the Rhône enjoy 834 mm. Hardly fair, considering Australia's average temperature is also a good 5 °C higher. Different climate, different soil and different cellar techniques: long maceration periods, customary in France, produce tannin-rich wines that remain drinkable for a long time if stored well. Down Under, the emphasis is on rapid completion of fermentation and oak ageing, producing fruit-led, intensely aromatic wines scented with vanilla and chocolate.

Weninger's Höllesgrund Syrah is produced only in top years. The wine comes from the Weninger family's oldest Syrah vineyard in Hungary. Its poor soils are particularly well suited to Syrah

Weninger wine estate

Like his father Franz Ludwig, young winegrower Franz Reinhard Weninger made wine his profession. He is responsible for the winemaking and organisation of 22 hectares of vineyards across two sites around Balf near Sopron in Hungary, acquired by Franz Ludwig Weninger in 1997. For both Weningers, the vineyard is a place to feel at home and the foundation of their wines' high quality. They have farmed all their land organically and biodynamically since 2006. 'We realised very early on that a site's character can only be felt when the soil is healthy and alive,' explains Franz Reinhard Weninger. The Steiner vineyard is the reason the family works in Balf. Once owned by the church in Sopron, this site is already listed in the village annals as the region's best and most expensive vineyard. The unusual soils, interspersed with gneiss and mica schist, impart the typical minerality. The grapes are selectively picked by hand at harvest and transferred into the tanks using gravity alone. Fermented spontaneously in steel tanks, the grape mash flows into casks after three weeks of maceration, where malolactic fermentation takes place naturally. Franz Reinhard Weninger uses sulphur individually: each wine receives sulphur only according to its own needs.