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
An extraordinary season is the phrase that best sums up season 2022.
The South-West of Western Australia experienced one of the hottest springs on record with an intensive long stretch of hot days and unseasonal warm nights, including four consecutive days above 40°C over the Christmas period. The timing of this heat wave was at a critical time in the cycle of the early maturing varieties such as Chardonnay and, to a lesser extent, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
Chardonnay yields were severely affected across the region but most seriously at Hay Shed Hill and other dry grown vineyards. We had potentially set a good crop at Hay Shed Hill but this four-day period and the follow up weeks compromised the weight of the bunches so that the end yield was estimated to be less than 30% of expectation. Such is farming. Qualitatively we have no complaints with the wine now in barrel maturing well.
Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon came in at significantly lower yields that expected but much better than Chardonnay. Red grapes were largely unaffected by the heat wave as they were immature in development at that time.
Abruptly in late January the weather changed dramatically with an extreme fall in day and night temperature and with consistent rain events passing through with early Autumnal-like conditions. This cooler weather benefited the red grapes, especially Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec allowing slower development and therefore greater flavour and colour maturity.
The outcome of 2022 is a high quality low yield harvest out of Margaret River.
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.
