Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Bendigo Syrah 2021

Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Bendigo Syrah 2021A dark and opaque garnet, almost inky syrah. The wild and savoury nose of bramble blackberry fruit intermixes with gun smoke, black olive, asphalt and licorice. Sweet blackcurrant and blueberry burst on the front palate, leading to a concentrated and dense mid palate of schist, wood smoke and saltbush flavours, wrapped in a sheath of very fine tannin. A surprisingly gentle and elegant finish considering the power and density on the front palate. We

A dark and opaque garnet, almost inky syrah. The wild and savoury nose of bramble blackberry fruit intermixes with gun smoke, black olive, asphalt and licorice. Sweet blackcurrant and blueberry burst on the front palate, leading to a concentrated and dense mid palate of schist, wood smoke and saltbush flavours, wrapped in a sheath of very fine tannin. A surprisingly gentle and elegant finish considering the power and density on the front palate. We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for another 10-15 years given optimal cellaring conditions.

Mt Difficulty Single Vineyard wines are a celebration of time and place. Located in Bendigo on Chinaman’s Terrace, once home to over 2000 Chinese miners during the 1860s and 70s, Ghost Town vineyard comprises of 13ha planted in mature Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Syrah. Planted in 2001, Ghost Town is at a high elevation rising from 340m to 382m. It potentially sees slightly warmer temperatures than Bannockburn during the peak of the ripening period, although harvest can be a week or so later than our Bannockburn vineyards due to this elevation. Ghost Town’s unique personality, together with minimal winemaking intervention, has resulted in a Syrah that displays a fine texture and suppleness.

The 2021 growing season was a return to the enviable, lower stress conditions that Central Otago is famous for. We started with a warm spring, which gave the vines a good start. January was cooler and wetter, which replenished the soils and slowed growth, giving small, intensely flavoured grapes. By the time the beginning of harvest rolled around, we were just ahead of our long term average in terms of rate of ripening, and with fruit in fantastic condition. Yields were thankfully back to average in most areas, with only Bannockburn cropping slightly lower. This has given wines with excellent flavour and structure.

The different clonal combinations in the vineyard were picked in two passes by hand. The fruit was destemmed with only a small proportion of the MS clone retained as whole bunches. Once processed, the must was cold soaked for 6 days before warming for indigenous fermentation. There was very minimal extraction during fermentation, and the wine was pressed off skins around 20 days in total. The wine settled in tank for several days before racking to French Oak, with only 10% new barrels. The wine was bottled after 12 months.