At first, it’s all Black Forest cake. Then there are black fruit pastilles, fresh blackberries and sweet anise!
There were healthy winter rains and plenty of spring rains that set the vines up very well. There was a later than usual start to harvest with long, slow ripening periods resulting in grapes with great depth of flavour. The intermittent summer rains stopped in mid-January, so disease pressure was low. It was very dry from February to April, with only a few millimetres of rain. Days were mild with a lot of cool nights. Overall, it was a great vintage with minimal disease pressure and above average crop levels.
The fruit is sourced from a vineyard at Maslins beach where the soil is essentially deep limestone, ancient seabed with an abundance of fossilised sea life. This vineyard produces very high-quality black fruit driven rich Shiraz which I was lucky enough to get my hands on through my father.
Charlie fermented the wine in a traditional open fermenter and used gentle cap management techniques. I put the pressed wine into of mainly new French hoggies (300L) for about 18 months. I haven’t fined or filtered the wine.There are awesome aromas of intense violets, blueberries and mulberries with cool hints of cinnamon. Seriously velvety dark berry fruits and black cherries with eastern spices leave a lasting taste which gradually finishes with reminders of dark chocolate covered coffee beans.
