Vineyard Blocks

Mostly from the neighbouring Keermont vineyard. A north east facing block. 7 yr old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis, clone SH9 on 101.14 rootstock. Soil deep red Hutton, medium potential decomposed granite. Yield 5 ton / hect.

Lightly irrigated at veraison.

 

Vintage Conditions

Slightly below average winter rain was followed by above average spring rain.  This allowed for good growth up to flowering and was followed by hot and dry conditions during berry enlargement, ensuring smaller berries.  Substantial rain (75mm) in January was beneficial for the Shiraz, ensuring it ripened evenly through the hot and dry weeks leading up to the harvest, producing big, rich, concentrated wine. 

Harvest date : 23 / 2 / 05 – 2 / 3 / 05 @  23.8 - 25.5° Balling.

 

Production

Handpicking into 20 kg lugboxes. Destemming and gentle crushing directly into small 2 ton open top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous natural yeast fermentation @ max. 31 deg. with the cap of skins punched down manually 2 - 4 times a day for an average of 12 days. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from traditional basket press.

All our red wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in the barrel. This helps to integrate the new oak component and fix colour and flavour compounds. 15% new French oak and 10 % new American oak was used.

Time in barrel 23 months with only a single racking.

This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered by hand.

Bottling date : 24 / 1 / 2007.

Production : 525 x 12 x 750ml

 

Tasting Notes

Attractive deep red colour. Quite aromatic with dark cherry and plum fruit complimented with white pepper, floral, nutty and herbal notes. Full, elegant palate packed with complex fruit and soft, ripe tannins.  Finely textured with a long, dry finish.  Probably best between  mid 2007 & 2015. Ideal with a variety of herb or spice infused meat dishes.

​

Analysis

Alc.  14.92            SG.  2.3              TA  5.4             pH  3.63             VA  0.62            SO2  35 & 101