Nose

The nose displays a complex blend of violets and spicy black pepper notes of the Shiraz with the more savoury licorice aromas from the Tempranillo.

Palate

PALATE: Shiraz and Tempranillo are wonderful partners; two old varieties coming together to make a new vibrant blend. The Shiraz brings all the Australian fruit power, deep plum flavours with a peppery edge in a fleshy fruit sweet palate. The Tempranillo adds savoury elements and complex tannin structure to the wine resulting in a more complete wine than either of the two components could make on their own. This wine has all the sweet fleshiness that we expect in Shiraz with the added benefit of textural complexity.

Growing Conditions

The year 2020 will naturally go down as a very strange year for obvious reasons. But even before our lives were tipped upside down the 2020 vintage in Margaret River had presented its own mysteries and unusual occurrences.

Another relatively dry winter was followed by the hottest and driest spring ever recorded in the South West. The region experienced the hottest October and November on record with all vine maturity stages being well advanced of normal. So much so that we harvested Chardonnay at Hay Shed Hill in January something we have never done before.

The heat of spring did not extend into summer with the summer of 2020 being relatively mild; in fact, conditions were highly favourable during the early part of summer. It appears that the seasons have just shifted forward a month with an early onset of autumn in the middle of March. This early onset of autumn did not prove to be a problem as most vineyards were picked and finished well ahead of normal.

The fact that a hot spring followed a less than satisfactory winter compromised grape yields across all varieties with crop levels being for the second year in a row uniformly poor. While quantity was low quality cannot be doubted. The whites are fresh and crisply varietal and the reds are vibrant and ripe with that lovely medium body that is the signature of Margaret River.

Bottling

Winemaking

Both Shiraz and Tempranillo were de-stemmed and fermented separately in open vessels with extensive pump over cap management to aid colour and flavour extraction as well as optimize the tannin development. The wines were pressed off skins and matured in French oak barriques, approximately one third new oak with the balance one and two year old. After 15 months in barrel the wines were blended according to taste.

Aging

The wines were pressed off skins and matured in French oak barriques, approximately one third new oak with the balance one and two year old. After 15 months in barrel the wines were blended according to taste.

Appearance

Vibrant red/black colour with a deep opaque centre.

Food Pairing

BBQ'd lamb backstrap with grilled vegetables. Also goes well with charcuterie with a blue or salty hard Cheddar or Gouda.