Description
amed in our mother’s native tongue for her youngest granddaughter, Totto Kulta is lovingly fashioned from our finest and most formidable hillside Syrah vineyards; each part as precious as gold and in entirety an extraordinary expression of Man O’ War.
BARREL: 60% new French Puncheons, 40% old Oak (20 months)
VINEYARDS: Asylum, Niko Face & Madman’s
WINEMAKING The fruit for the 2019 Totto Syrah comes from our most breathtakingly beautiful yet most steep and fearsome vineyards; Asylum, Madman’s and Niko Face. These vineyards are close planted, dry farmed, often 40o or more in slope and produce extremely low yields of stunning fruit quality. All our Syrah parcels are hand harvested and sorted in the winery. Both the Madman’s and Niko Face vineyards are given 15% whole bunches in each fermenter while the Asylum is 100% whole bunches. After 3 or 4 days in the vat the juice starts a spontaneous fermentation which is managed with twice daily pump overs and the odd plunge throughout the ferment. Post ferment the wine stays in the vat for an average of 30 days before pressing to 500 litre puncheon for ageing. The wines undergo a natural malolactic fermentation in barrel and are blended to tank after 20 months.
TASTING NOTE The 2019 Kulta Totto Syrah has a complex aromatic profile with smokey peaty characters with an herbaceous lift from the stem influence along with notes of blue and boysenberry and a nod towards cured meats. The oak is very lightly toasted also providing an edge of lift from the woody oak aromatics. The palate is fresh but full bodied with a nice linearity from the acidity and the mix of skin, seed, stem and oak tannins.
