Nose
Spicy aromas of glazed pears, cinnamon and cloves form and under lay to darker tones of raspberry jam, baked orange rind and white pepper.
Palate
The entry is bright and spicy, with hints of leather, forest floor, cracked allspice and dark chocolate forming a complex medley to fine grained layers of tannin and textures of bay leaf, black olives and spiced apricots. The finish is long and dark, with fresh tones of white pepper and citrus blossom left lingering.
Growing Conditions
The Margaret River Wine Region has been blessed with eight great growing seasons in a row. Vintage 2014 started off with some late, heavy rainfall in September and two minor hail events in October. However from here on, there weren't any significant weather events until a heat spike the week prior to Christmas. The entire flowering period occurred in warm, mild conditions re-sulting in good fruit-set across all varieties. Vintage conditions were ideal for ripening all varieties with little or no disease present and no rainfall pressures.
Winemaking
Roughly half the block was hand-picked and de-stemmed, with the berries left uncrushed to preserve the natural fruit perfumes and allow for slow, controlled tannin and flavour extraction. A third of the stalks yielded from the destemming processes were added back to the must to promote extraction of spicier flavours and more savoury fruit characters and textures. 4 days later the other half of the block was hand-picked and de-stemmed, with the berries left un-crushed to preserve the natural fruit perfumes and allow for slow, controlled tannin and flavour extraction. The ferments were kept cold and pumped over twice a day for 8 days. The still-fermenting wines were then gently separated from their skins and allowed to finish ferment in a mix of old and new Burgundian-style oak barrels. The wines were then aged separately in oak for 14 months before bottling.
Aging
This is a fresh drink now style, but can be aged for up to 10 years for added complexity.
Appearance
Purple with rich red streaks.
