Nose
A savoury style of wine without the overt ‘fruity’ characters traditionally seen in Australian rose this wine nevertheless exhibits the varietal notes of strawberries.
Palate
Light bodied, savoury and refreshingly dry this wine displays good varietal carryover of strawberry notes from the Pinot Noir grapes. Vibrant and lively the palate is clean and dry with a slight graininess in texture typically seen in dry style rose.
Growing Conditions
The vintage of 2021 is a bit of a blur in the memory with constant decisions made on the fly at all hours of the day given the unusual weather conditions across Margaret River, and to a lesser extent the Great Southern of Western Australia.
It was a great start to the season with the first really wet winter for several years and therefore good soil moisture entering spring and summer. This is even more important for ‘dry grown’ (unirrigated) vineyards such as Hay Shed Hill. There were positive signs at budburst with potentially better crop levels than the last two years.
Spring was mild with Chardonnay from Block 6 and Block 8 at Hay Shed Hill being harvested in the first week of February. There was a small break until the avalanche of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon started. In this middle to late part of February and throughout March we experienced multiple episodes of rain, some of these falls being heavy. This sort of weather is rare in a Margaret River summer requiring harvest plans to be constantly reviewed and updated.
Given the conditions I am thrilled with the result, all whites and rosés were pristine and clean, perhaps a little lighter in body than many years but wonderfully fresh and pure in character.
When we got to reds in March and throughout April the challenges were greater. The requirement for full ripe fruit flavours and depth of body in red wine means the grapes need to be left on the vine longer therefore with increased risk. But we were protected by the wine gods and got all the Hay Shed Hill reds off the vine before the season broke with a vengeance with heavy mid-April rainfall.
I think it will be a classic year more closely aligned with Margaret River wines of the early and mid-90s as opposed to the bigger wines of the early part of the century. And I think that is a good thing.
Michael Kerrigan
Winemaking
In keeping with the great tradition of European provincial rose that gets consumed in every small village bar and café throughout the south of France the Hay Shed Hill Pinot Noir Rose is a dry savoury style of rose that is ideally matched to modern Australian cuisine and lifestyle.
Made from 100% Pinot Noir grown on Block 7 of the Hay Shed Hill vineyard in Margaret River this old vine fruit produces depth of flavour and character while remaining light in body. The grapes were harvested at low potential alcohol and cold pressed to produce juice light in colour but of the highest quality. Fermented to dryness the wine was bottled as soon as possible to preserve the bright nature of the wine.
Appearance
Vibrant light pink hues of great clarity.
