Tasting Notes
colour
Dark purple-black.
aroma
There is a wonderful lift to this wine; dark ripe rich and sweetly spiced, intense black cherries, and lifted rose petals; this wine has density and freshness with serious concentration. Spice notes are there in abundance displaying both white and black pepper, fresh coffee notes and dark chocolate
palate
This is a rich wine which has a wonderful elegance. There is a big explosion of concentrated dark bramble patch fruits, displaying density, freshness and incredibly fine skin tannins. The mid palate is full and long, the after palate tightens up displaying chocolate savoury tannins. This wine needs some time, 3 years maybe but in my opinion it is up there with the best Dalwhinnie Moonambel Shiraz we have made.
cellaring
Optimum drinking within three to five years of vintage.
Technical
vintage
Every now and then mother nature challenges you like you wouldn’t believe to make beautiful wine in the Dalwhinnie vineyard. The 2016 vintage was one of those years. The previous six month growing season gave us below average rainfall which was a concern, but worse than that the flowers on the vines did not set well at all. This was a real concern as the yields were reduced by up to 50% on both red and white grapes. As the growing season progressed into 2016 we did receive some good rain, but some damage had been done with small clusters and tiny berries, although this gave us some of the darkest, strongest and most intense wine we have ever made. These wines need some time, and given at least a couple of years they will show you their true potential. They are colossal red wines!
winemaking
Grapes were picked at optimum ripeness ie. 13.0 – 14.0 Baume over two passes. The grapes were crushed, de-stemmed. Inoculated and fermented in small open fermenters. Temperature is controlled at around 26 degrees C. After a 7 day ferment there is a further 2 weeks of skin contact post alcoholic fermentation. The wine is then pressed out in a large pneumatic press then pumped into French oak barriques for 17 - 18 months oak maturation. The wine is filtered and bottled in November the following year.
region
Pyrenees Region, Western Victoria, Australia
variety
Shiraz
analysis
- Alcohol: 14.5%
- pH: 3.63
- Acidity (TA): 6.50 g/L
Reviews
2020 james halliday wine companion
Crushed and destemmed, 8-day ferment, 14 days post-ferment maceration, 17-18 months in French oak, (33% new). Full-bodied blackberry/black cherry fruits and substantial tannins need some years yet to resolve and let the fruit shine. - 95 Points
95
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