Tasting Notes
Deep red in colour, the wine displays ripe satsuma plum and blackcurrant, a little chocolate and a hint of charry French oak. The palate is quite rich but retains a degree of elegance with its balanced acidity. It also has a good depth of juicy, fleshy dark berry fruit held in check by some fine grained tannins. A really attractive Clare red blend which will repay medium term cellaring – say 4-6 years. Try with game pie.
Technical Detail
Region
100% Clare Valley, South Australia.
One of Australia's oldest and most premium wine regions, famous all around the world for it's Riesling and Shiraz wines in particular
Varietal
85% Shiraz, 15%, Cabernet
Vineyard
Single vineyard
When to Drink
Enjoy now or cellar for 4-6 years
13.5% Alcohol
Vintage Notes
Growing Season
The 2016 vintage was shaped by a cool winter with average rainfall followed by a dry, warm spring and quite a hot December. Budburst was earlier than normal due to the warmer conditions in September and consequently harvest was also very early – we commenced vintage on Feb 9th. Thankfully January and February were quite mild with below average maximum and minimum temperatures experienced for both months. Around 30mm of rain received on 29th January went a long way towards shaping the vintage also. It has probably turned a potentially ordinary vintage into something potentially quite special.
Winemaking
The grapes for this wine were both machine and hand harvested, transported to the winery, destemmed into small open fermenters, chilled and macerated for approx 3-4 days prior to the natural yeasts kicking in and beginning the ferment. Fermentation was completed within 12 days prior to the wine being pressed and run into used French 228L barrels for 18 months.