         
Vintage Update - June 2011
We revisited this wine very recently and WOW! We all know red wine improves with age but even our best hopes for this wine have been exceeded.
Laden with juicy cherries, sharp raspberries this wine exhibits fresh fruit and a clean, refreshing finish. One glass will not be enough!
This medium bodied red has all the elements that make Syrah's from the Adelaide Hills so fundamentally different from other GI's. If you have never tried an Adelaide Hills Syrah then our Reserve 2008 is a great place to start.
Eminent UK fine wine critic agrees
Jancis Robinson awarded 17.5 points out of 20, which according to her scale, makes the Sidewood Reserve Syrah a superior wine. This makes our wine one of the best 6 Australian red wines for 2008.
"Floral, meat juice, intensely pure plum, rhubarb stew, redcurrant - lovely clarity and freshness. I tasted this twice, to make sure I wasn't over-reacting, and if anything it was better second time round. True Syrah - incredibly aromatic. Splendid" www.jancis.robinson.com - Dec 2010
As any wine lover knows a good Syrah will improve with age, so we can only wonder with anticipation how good this wine will be by 2018. Supplies are reducing fast and the Reserve may not appear in every vintage, so we urge all Sidewood customers to stock up now.
Tash's Notes
The Sidewood Reserve Syrah comes from vineyards in the heart of the Adelaide Hills region around the towns of Oakbank and Woodside. The fruit was picked during late March in 2008 which is earlier than other years due to the abundance of hot weather that we had in February and March.
We crushed the Shiraz very gently to ensure 10% of the berries were left whole and went through ferment as a whole berry. This gives another dimension in flavour to the wine. The juice finished ferment and went to oak. We used one year old French barrels from two different Burgundian coopers and the wine matured in these barrels for a total of 18 months at which point we thought the fruit and oak balance was perfect so the wine was taken from barrel and made ready for bottle.
After 5 months bottle age, this wine is drinking well and in a continually improving mode and expect it to have a life of at least 15 years.
Colour
Med red with vivid red hue.
Aroma
Raspberries and dark red plum fruit. Musk sticks and cinnamon. An alluring Shiraz.
Palate
The 2008 vintage was warm and rain free which gives way to wines with extreme depth. It was a classic vintage and this Syrah exhibits that depth of flavour with dark plum and raspberry character.
Food Pairing
Osso Bucco. The sweetness of fruit in this wine would suit sweeter sauced dishes such as duck and plum sauce.
Cellaring
With careful cellaring this wine should last 12-18 years
      
Reviews
Jancis Robinson
Medium intensity crimson, looking pretty healthy and interesting. Sweet, friendly nose - like a cross between a lesser Côte Rôtie and something sweeter - but with lovely freshness and pure texture. Very good effort. Surely at its peak but a pure expression of Syrah in a relatively cool climate. A tingle on the finish. Very distinctive in an Australian context. Rating 17
JancisRobinson.com
Floral, meat juice, intensely pure plum, rhubarb stew, redcurrant - lovely clarity and freshness. I tasted this twice, to make sure I wasn't over-reacting, and if anything it was better second time round. True Syrah - incredibly aromatic. Splendid. Rating 17.5
28 Dec 2010 by RH
erobertparker.com – Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Deep garnet-purple coloured, the 2008 Reserve Syrah is a little reduced to begin with notes of tar and rubber over a blackberry and black cherry core plus some pepper, cloves and dried herbs. Light to medium-bodied with a medium level of slightly astringent tannins, it has crisp acidity and a long berry-laced finish. Drinking now, it should remain fresh to 2014. Rating 86
Wine Spectator
Tight, focused and juicy, not weighty but dense, with black pepper-accented blackberry and liquorice flavours, lingering on the velvety finish. Drink now through 2018. Rating 90
James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2012
A savoury and spicy style, unashamedly taking its lead from the Rhône in France; the bouquet shows sour cherries, redcurrant, black pepper and a touch of olive; at the light end of medium-bodied, the fruit is tightly wound and the crisp acidity delivers it to a quite fine and even conclusion. Rating 93
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