Beautiful but youthful juice

I originally posted this short review of Rall Ava Syrah 2021 on the terrific Tom Cannavan’s Wine-Pages, as pain is keeping me from writing the usual interminable essay about it. However, as I was lying here, with my back and legs on fire and my fractured toe throbbing, I thought, “I should give my organ some attention.”

So the review has made the jump to the elegant, elaborate Elitistreview (with a bit of fiddling)! Surely my organ should be the recipient of my engagement if I am going to write about wine or food? Yes, of course it should!

So, no matter how briefly I am able to concentrate on anything apart from pain, I will continue to post here. I imagine a lot of the reviews over the next three months (until my new Spinal Cord Simulator is implanted) will be quite short, but it is better than nothing. I hope. Here we go!

About a week ago I had an amazing Syrah from South Africa: Rall Ava Syrah 2021. This review of it is short, but I must publish. Why? Because people need to know.

2021 was a great vintage in South Africa, so I was expecting something good, but what I got… Phew! Tiny yields from this Schist soil vineyard in Swartland in every vintage.

Of course, it was infanticide.

However, I am under the pain consultant’s orders to enjoy myself as much as possible (to get my endorphins squirting around my brain), and drinking this coruscatingly brilliant wine was an enormous pleasure. Do not follow my example, keep it.

Rall Ava Syrah 2021

Ava Syrah 2021, Donovan Rall

This is a seriously refined Syrah of considerable beauty, impressive complexity, and clear communication of its turangawaewae. Heavenly scented and extremely elegant. Indeed, it is the best Syrah I have had in recent memory.

However, at this stage the powerful structure dominates, even with sextuple decanting and being allowed to rest for a couple of hours for oxygen to work its magic.

This is not a problem, it is just that the wine is very young. The structure may be tough and it may not be overtly charming right now, but it is so svelte, with what it needs, where it needs it, it is clear that it will be intensely lovely and a real joy to drink.

Do not buy this to drink now. Cellar it for 10-12 years, these New World wines come around faster than one might think. This of a similar structure, and it would seem to me ageing requirements, as the Mullineux Single Vineyard Syrahs, if you are cognisant of them. (A bottle of 2010 Mullineux Schist Syrah drank recently was an uninhibited joy.)

I own four more bottles of this, and it is one of the wines I am happiest to own. Beg, borrow or steal to get some, it’s nigh peerless.


My Ava Syrah dealer is out of 2021, but Lay and Wheeler have the potentially excellent 2023 available.

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