Hay Shed Hill

Western Australia, South West Australia

Block 1 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

$ AUD

Release Price

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ABV

pH

TA

RS

Nose

The bouquet is fresh and clean with classic grassy elements typical of this region but with a lemony minerality distinctive to this block. The nose is more complex than most SSB blends with an underlying toasty nuance.

Palate

The palate is bright and fresh with vibrant citric, gooseberry and lychee-like flavours, all at a level of intensity greater than expected. The oak is almost impossible to detect other than it adds a textural dimension to what is normally a simple fresh and lively wine style. This wine has an amazing palate extension with the flavour lingering to a clean ultra dry finish.

Growing Conditions

The vintage of 2019 in Margaret River was particularly challenging logistically and financially but in the most important sense, that is grape quality, it was nonetheless a good vintage.

At the Hay Shed Hill vineyard, which is very close to the Indian Ocean, we experienced a warm and dry winter, which meant that the vines never deeply entered dormancy as soil temperature stayed reasonably high. This led to a very early initial budburst in last August. It is never good to burst that early as spring in Wilyabrup can be quite wild with wet and windy conditions which can be devastating during the grapevine flowering period. And so it proved this season with hail, wind and heavy rain during the critical flowering period lead to the 2019 vintage being the smallest harvest the vineyard has experienced.

The challenges remained as we entered the summer part of the growing season with several rain episodes and generally mild conditions. This made ripening slow, which is not a bad thing except that we had pressure from the two main pests in grape growing in Margaret River, birds and kangaroos. It was one of those years with no blossom in the native trees across the whole of the South West, so very little food for the birds. Similarly the dry winter severely limited the feed for kangaroos and combined with unusually big mobs the roo damage to the fruit was extensive. This was my thirteenth vintage here at Hay Shed Hill and I have never seen kangaroo numbers like this before.

The accountant would doubtless judge 2019 as a very poor year, but when you toast the vintage with a glass of Margaret River from 2019 you will be grateful that not all decisions are made from a financial basis.
WINEMAKING: Only the best ‘free run’ component of the juice was used resulting in the finest and brightest fruit expression with the least amount of phenolic impact. The juice was fermented in French oak barrels, no new oak was used so as to ensure that oak flavours and aromas were not dominant characters in the wine. The wine was matured in barrel for 8 months before clarification and bottling.

Winemaking

Only the best ‘free run’ component of the juice was used resulting in the finest and brightest fruit expression with the least amount of phenolic impact. The juice was fermented in French oak barrels, no new oak was used so as to ensure that oak flavours and aromas were not dominant characters in the wine. The wine was matured in barrel for 8 months before clarification and bottling.