Nose
A lifted nose of cherry, chocolate, plums and an exotic hint of allspice.
Palate
The palate is fully integrated with great fruit flavours and fine tannins, giving in to a long delicious length.
Growing Conditions
Our first commercial vintage from our primary planted vines of Merlot and Cabernet Franc was completed in late March to early April 2005. The season was an excellent one for the Margaret River region with a solid even set during spring and a dry but not too hot summer. A large downpour occurred during March, but with the ground being so dry and having a large sloping estate much of this water simply ran off the vineyard, causing no problems during vintage. Many vineyards have rated this vintage the best since 2001 and we also thought this was a great year to show off what our site could produce.
Harvest
The fruit was severely thinned prior to harvest, as in 2004, and during hand harvesting any grapes that were considered not good “enough to eat” were dropped on the ground.
Winemaking
We were fortunate enough to have Sharna Kowalczuk from Vasse River Wines make our wine and she completed an exemplarily job with our grapes from arrival through to bottling. The wine was fermented in a closed vat and continuously “pumped over” to extract colour and tannins softly, with ferment being completed after 9 days. The wine was pressed and placed in French oak barrels and stored for 15 months.
Appearance
The wine is a deep plum crimson red.
Food Pairing
we recommend any form of game meats (duck, quail, venison etc), as well as roasted lamb as particularly fine matches with this wine.
