Sinapius Esme Rouge Gamay 2024

The wine that opens with an intensely perfumed nose, offering aromas of wild strawberry and redcurrants, layered with hints of violet and wild fennel. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with a savoury depth from the whole-bunch stem elements, complemented by juicy red fruits and fine, chalky tannins. As the wine opens with time in the glass, the initial savoury notes give way to sweet, dark red fruits, and the wine shows wonderful length and persistence. The finish is marked by a fine spice and vibrant acidity, making it versatile and enjoyable both at room temperature and when lightly chilled.

This Estate Grown Gamay, sourced from a dry-grown, high-density planted vineyard established in 2013, offers a truly expressive wine that showcases the character of its unique terroir. Planted with 7,700 to 11,111 vines per hectare, the grapes are carefully handpicked to maintain the integrity of the bunches, before undergoing a traditional whole-cluster carbonic maceration for two weeks. After pressing, the wine is aged for seven months in a 1500-litre foudré and old barriques, bottled without fining or filtration in February 2025.

The result is a wine that opens with an intensely perfumed nose, offering aromas of wild strawberry and redcurrants, layered with hints of violet and wild fennel. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with a savoury depth from the whole-bunch stem elements, complemented by juicy red fruits and fine, chalky tannins. As the wine opens with time in the glass, the initial savoury notes give way to sweet, dark red fruits, and the wine shows wonderful length and persistence. The finish is marked by a fine spice and vibrant acidity, making it versatile and enjoyable both at room temperature and when lightly chilled.

The vineyard has two distinct volcanic-based soil types: deep red ferrosol soils, and ironstone gravels with a layer of micaceous quartz siltstone 30-60cm below. Both soils contain large amounts of quartz and basalt, and hold moisture well which allows us to dry-grow our vines. The 4 distinct vineyard blocks face North-East and East which warms the soils early in the day and gives the vines full sun exposure to ensure optimal ripeness and flavour in our grapes.

Blocks are planted at a high density of 1.3m between rows x 1m between vines (7700 vines/ha) with some sections planted at 1.1m x 0.75m (10250 vines/ha). Our fruiting wire is positioned 40cm off the ground with an overall canopy height of approximately 1.2 metres. Each vine is pruned using Poussard technique to a single 8-10 bud cane therefore the yield per vine is significantly low (currently averaging less than 500 grams per vine).

So, what is high density planting and why do we do it?

Our vineyard has been modelled on vineyard plantings in Burgundy, the homeland of exceptional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Burgundy vineyards are generally planted at 1m wide row x 1-metre-wide vine spacings equating to 10,000 vines per hectare. Our philosophy at Sinapius is that in order to make great wine, yields per vine need to be low to ensure maximal intensity, concentration and expression of the site is evident in the wines.

The vineyard work in high density planted vineyards is back breaking, labour intensive, and, undertaken mostly by hand. This includes pruning in winter through to de-suckering, shoot positioning, summer pruning, leaf plucking, trimming, fruit thinning at bunch closure as well as netting to protect the grapes from the birds.

In 2019, we imported a narrow (90cm wide) crawler tractor from Italy. The Geier allows for easier access within our narrow rows and ensures minimal compaction to the soil. With the use of Braun undervine cultivation equipment, we are now able to manage weeds under the vines without the use of herbicide.

We grow a number of different varieties at Sinapius. We have also focused on planting a vast array of Clones which have been selected and planted in different blocks, on differing soil type on the property. This allows for a greater expression of these varieties as each clones offers some subtle variation in characteristics, resulting in more complexity in the finished wines.