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Tasting Notes
Medium bodied, with sweet fruit balanced by slightly elevated acidity. The fruit unfolds with blackberry jam, raspbery, mint, leather, smoke, and licorice.
Body is the impression of a wines weight, density, or its ‘mouth-feel’. Some wines feel weighty, or full bodied, while others feel light bodied. Wine runs the gamut from light to full, with most falling somewhere in between.
TANNIN
Low
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Tannin can range greatly in wine, but it is necessary to some degree, and a necessary constituent for red wines to age well. In high amounts, it can cause a drying affect, which is sensed mostly on the gums and tongue. Tannin is a natural preservative extracted from grape skins, otherwise known as polyphenols that are micronutrients and antioxidants with potential health benefits.
ACIDITY
Soft
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Acidity is a foundational component in wine. In fact, low acidity, or ‘flabby’ wine (as the term suggests) is a negative. You can sense acidity mainly on the sides of your tongue. Acidity generally ranges from balanced to high. Crisp acidity adds freshness, making your mouth water. Acidity is a necessary element and helps to balance other components.
SWEETNESS
Dry
Off Dry
Medium Dry
Medium Sweet
Very Sweet
Most wines are characterized as dry to off-dry, but there are some grape varietals, like Riesling, that run the gamut from dry to sweet. The tip of the tongue mainly detects sweetness, which is why it is often the primary characteristic detected. Sweetness is derived from residual sugar that did not ferment into alcohol.
ALCOHOL
13.5%
Alcohol is the by-product of fermentation. Differing grape varieties have differing potential alcohol levels, but regardless warmer areas result in riper grapes resulting in higher alcohol. Alcohol level is an objective number, but its affect on its palate impression is largely determined with how well integrated and balanced it is with other components.
Syrah is widely planted throughout the world, but that was not so until the late twentieth century when Syrah was principally grown in the Rhone Valley and, as Shiraz, in Australia. Stylistically, the Palate Character of Syrah can vary depending on ripeness from a rich Round & Fleshy, Tone & Backbone, to a Powerful & Extracted. The flavors and aromas can also vary with a dark, sometimes sweet, fruit character, varying amount of spice, floral, and earth, and smoke, and meaty aromas and flavors.
Thinus Kruger used to work for a large winery in Stellenbosch before a friend alerted him to the availability of a remote vineyard in the Citrusdal Mountain about four hours north of Cape Town. He named his new venture Fram, which in Norwegian means “to move forward,” and which was also the name of a Norwegian exploration ship. This is truly a one-man operation where Thinus does all of the work himself.
Thinus’s mission is to organically make wines from different vineyards where the grape varieties reflect each terroir. Thinus makes his wines in a cellar in the Swartland, just outside of the town of Malmesbury. He ferments all wines naturally (no cultivated yeasts) and uses little if any new oak for the maturation process.
The Fram syrah has great energy, restraint, and complexity. It is a labor of love, at a fantastic value.
Blackberry
Raspberry
Leather
