‘Where’s the Pope?’

Syrah | McLaren Vale - Australia

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About

‘Where’s the Pope?’ is a pioneering thrash/hardcore band from ‘Radelaide’. It’s also a pioneering response to the queen m-f of a harvest in 2020 in which Taras and Amber didn’t have any Adelaide Hills Syrah to play with, as it was pretty much all smoke tainted or the vineyards were destroyed. They had an idea (and they were always good ones…): why not take the Syrah from the insane ‘Green Room’ site? The idea took shape, and Amber has continued this trend ever since. The schist soils form a diametric point with the partial carbonically macerated, early picked Syrah to find that vortex of calamity and calmness. The 2025 vintage was warm and dry, and most people picked early, resulting in wines with lower ABV than usual. Indeed, this was Amber’s first pick of the vintage, on a gorgeous sunny day with not a cloud in the sky.

The fruit was hand-picked and fermented spontaneously with 65% whole clusters in half-ton bins sitting outside the winery. The fruit was left for 15 days with a bit of hand plunging in the latter days. The lots were then basket-pressed to old French barriques with the gross lees. The wine matured for four months then the barrels were gravity fed to tank and left to settle overnight. The wine was bottled with just a small sulfur addition. No fining or filtering.

Stats

Grapes: 100% Syrah
Vineyard: Grancari Vineyard (Onkaparinga Hills)
Vine Age: 29-years-old
Soil Type: Ironstone over shallow limestone and heavy schist
Viticulture: Certified organic - dry-farmed
Fermentation: Native – open-top picking bins (60% whole cluster)
Skin Contact: 15 days
Aging: 4 months in seasoned French barrique
Alcohol: 10.5%
pH: 3.47
Total Acidity: 5.6 g/L
Total SO2: 67 ppm
Total Production: 142 cases
UPC: None

Tasting Note

Super light on alcohol, but full of flavor, lush and leggy… Redolent of black olive tapenade and crushed autumn leaves. Like that smell when you go walking on those perfect autumn days, when the trees are still full of leaves, but so is the ground, so you kick the leaves, then you throw the leaves up in the air and then you just can’t resist any more, so you start rolling and you keep rolling until you are completely covered in the leaves and the gorgeous smell fills your nostrils when you breathe in deeply and you remember how magical life is…

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‘Where’s the Pope?’

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