Tasting Notes
Deep Crimson with richly aromatic in the savoury spectrum showing green olive and mulberry leaf characters. Classic Clare structure of medium weight, fine grained tannins with excellent length. Fruit flavours consist of mulberry and blackberry notes complemented by dried herbs. Oak is barely noticeable with maturation adding texture and subtle spice notes. 2016 was one of the great Clare Valley vintages, cellaring recommended.
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
Cabernet 80%, 20% Malbec. 17 months in older French Barrels
Vineyard
Single vineyard
When to Drink
Enjoy now or cellar for 10+ years
14.0% 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 as a consequence 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 hand & machine harvested, transported to the winery, de stemmed, pressed and the juice chilled prior to the being partially clarified by cold settling – some solids were retained for texture and added complexity. It was then inoculated with a pure yeast culture, with fermentation carried out in stainless steel temperature controlled tanks for 25-30 days. After fermentation the wine was fined, stabilised and then filtered prior to bottling.