Description
Syrah Family Reserve 2023 – an elegant red wine from an exceptional vintage
Our Syrah Family Reserve from the 2023 vintage was awarded the prestigious 95 points in the New Europe Wine Guide – Bulgaria 2025 by Beth Willard, co-chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards. Here is the description published in the wine guide:
“It’s elegant Syrah with blackberry, blueberry and spice. Elegant and direct, it has intense fruit and wonderfully managed tannins that gently support the wine. A peppery, dark fruited Syrah, it shows a tamed and terroir driven side of the variety in Bulgaria. Worthy of aging if you can resist it now.”
The grapes for Syrah Family Reserve 2023 are from an approximately 20-year-old vineyard near the village of Momkovo in the Svilengrad region. 2023 was our third harvest from this vineyard, where we work with precisely defined rows. The year was hot, but there was rainfall in August, which helped ripening.
The altitude of the vineyard is around 250 m, the terrain is sloping and airy, with a southern exposure. This part of the vineyard grows on cinnamon-podzolic soils. For our Syrah from the 2023 harvest, the grapes are from 10 rows in the middle part of the plot.
At the beginning of August, we detected uneven ripening of some of the grapes due to the uneven load on the vines. We had to remove some of the grapes to allow the remaining bunches to ripen properly. This resulted in a reduced yield, but also a harvest of very high quality.
After hand picking and sorting on September 15, 2023, we carried out a classic fermentation with constant temperature control, followed by malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged for 11 months in new 500-liter French oak barrels from selected forests and was bottled on September 17, 2024.
The color is rich ruby with violet hues. The aroma impresses with intense spicy notes. The taste is soft, with nuances of red fruits, mulberry and black pepper, combined with freshness and a rounded, elegant body. The finish is long and memorable. This is a vintage of exceptional quality.
This red wine pairs perfectly with aged cheeses, red meat, and dishes with rich sweet-salty flavors.
Harvest date: September 15, 2023 / Alcohol: 14.5 vol.% / Total acidity: 6.15 g/l / Sugars: 3 g/l / Bottling date: 09/17/2024 / Batch: 1400 bottles
