Coates the Syrah 2022

Duane Coates draws this Syrah from Clarendon and Willunga vineyards in McLaren Vale, ferments it thirty days on skins with natural yeasts, then matures it eighteen months in French oak — only a quarter of it new — before bottling unfined and unfiltered. Deep crimson, with mulberry and plum aromas shaded by espresso, roasted spice and a touch of charcuterie; the palate is plush and softly textured, black fruits woven with black earth, liquorice and game, closing on layers of soft velvety tannin. Drinks well now and through 2033.

Two Clarendon vineyards supply the bulk of the fruit, with a single Willunga site making up the rest. The grapes are destemmed and only partly crushed before that long ferment, so whole berries stay in the vat. The barrels come from a spread of coopers, among them Seguin-Moreau, Nadalié and Remond, so no single barrel house stamps the wine.

Duane Coates calls himself a heart-over-head winemaker, and he earned his Master of Wine in 2020. He adds no tannins, enzymes or fining agents of any kind, whether egg, fish or milk. Residual sugar sits under one gram a litre, so this is bone dry for all its plushness.

Nicks Wine Merchants expects it to unfurl over the next six to eight years, and finds dark chocolate, cedar and pepper behind the fruit. Decant it for an hour and pour it with slow-cooked lamb shoulder or a charred rib eye.