‘Our Hill’ is a new Syrah from Sami-Odi that comes from the rolling hillsides of Fraser’s home farm on the south side of Angaston in the Eden Valley. It is assembled from his most prized casks; the fruit is grown on eastern facing slopes on the rockiest section of the property. The two historical Sami-Odi Syrahs (‘Little Wine’ and ‘Hoffmann-Dallwitz’) come from old bush vines in the Barossa Valley. This wine is like a 180° spin, with very young fruit from the cooler Eden Valley. Still, this wine remains stylistically Sami-Odi, with plush, supple fruit being underpinned by layers of spice. Yields ranged between 25 & 44 hectolitres per hectare.
The grapes were hand-harvested and hand-sorted back at the winery. The carefully selected whole-clusters were placed into stainless-steel tanks and fermented without any additions. After 18-26 days depending on the lot, the wine was pressed off the skins and went into old Frech oak barriques for 19 months of aging. The wines were not racked during their élevage and remained on their lees until the barrels were selected and blended. Bottles were filled without filtration, fining or sparging (the removal of naturally occurring oxygen & C02) and all transfers were completed via gravity prior to bottling. The only small addition was sulfur.
