2016 Kusuda Syrah

Hand-picked 16 – 23 April with rigorous selection at 20 – 22 Brix. TA 5.3 g/l, pH 3.62. 94% destemmed without crushing, cold soaked for 6 to 8 days. Fermented in open stainless-steel vats with pumping-over and hand-plunging for a total maceration period of 25 – 29 days. Aged in French (22% new) oak barriques for 22 months. Unfined and bottled after coarse filtration on 5 March 2018. Bottles produced: 2,617. Really deep crimson – much deeper than the 2017 and 2018. Savoury and salty. Light to medium weight. Fine but not quite as ethereal and reverberant as the 2018. Delicate but slightly simpler than the 2018. The acidity is just very slightly more obvious than in the 2018. But this is a very distinguished wine that plays the Japanese elegance card. (JR)