The Story R. Lane Vintners Westgate Vineyards Syrah 2015

The Westgate Vineyard, in the hills south of the town of Great Western in the Grampians, has been consistently and unquestionably the highest quality grape source for the Story Wines over the now 15 years I have made wine from the region. In 2015 the vines yielded a meagre tonne and a bit per acre, very similar to the lauded 2014 version of this wine. Again I split the harvest into 3 batches, some destemmed, some with a small percentage of whole bunches and then a smaller amount fermented as all whole bunches. All were fermented with ambient yeasts. From these three ferments I had ample elements with which to make a final cuvee. The batches were individually matured for twelve months in barrel (a mixture of French puncheons and barriques) before a final ‘best barrels’ selection was blended and held in tank for a further four months. In 2015 it comprised 60% whole bunches, and approximately 20% new oak. It was then bottled with no fining or filtration. A worthy follow-up to the epic 2014, it has similarly been awarded 96pts by Halliday, won top gold at the Western Victorian Wine Challenge (amongst its peers from the Grampians and Pyrenees and there are some very notable wines in that company) and was also recently included in Matthew Jukes top 100 Australian wines in the UK against all comers.