he highest-grown wine in the Damascene range, the 2025 Ceres Plateau Syrah is a study in altitude: pure, focused, and cut with a floral spice all its own.

The nose is open and welcoming – juicy blackberry with a candied edge, purple flowers, and a savoury, subtle note of baked cherry skin behind the fruit. The palate is gentle in mouthfeel but never in tension, holding black cherry and candied pomegranate against the lift of Madagascan pink peppercorn. Fine grape-skin tannins gather as the fruit recedes, and the finish is long and cool. Time in the glass sees those spice notes develop further rather than fade.

More about the vineyard:

This vineyard is planted into the Bokkeveld shale soils of the Witzenberg mountain range, atop the Ceres Plateau. Situated in one of South Africa’s most elevated growing regions, the site sits at over 1000m above sea level and presents all the textbook extremes of high-altitude viticulture. In winter, the vineyard is often blanketed in snow, while a dramatic diurnal shift slows ripening. It is invariably the final Syrah block we harvest each year