Nose
Ripe cherry and plum fruits with chocolaty influences.
Palate
The palate displays good depth of fruit concentration, ripe sweet fruit fleshiness in the mid palate and good flavour extension.
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. It is never good to burst 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 leading to the low fruit set.
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.
The accountant would doubtless judge 2019 as a very poor year, but when you toast the vintage with a glass from 2019 you will be grateful that not all decisions are made from a financial basis.
Winemaking
Shiraz from selected premium Margaret River vineyards were used to make this wine. Fermented in open stainless steel tanks with twice daily pumpovers aiding fruit tannin development. Maturation in new, 1, 2 and 3 year old French oak for 12 months encouraged wine development and structural complexity. The objective was to produce an elegant Shiraz with complex aromas and characters and with texture and structure, the use of French oak instead of traditional American oak gives rise to a wine of greater sophistication.
Aging
Drink in the short term.
Appearance
Vibrant youthful brilliant hue of good depth.
