Nose
The nose is complex with earthy savoury characters, wonderfully deep cedar notes and winter spices.
Palate
The palate shows earthy and spicy fruit characters. It has complex cigar-box and smokiness from
its time in oak. This tempranillo has firm tannins and a good acid profile which would suggest some mediumterm
aging potential.
Growing Conditions
2017 vintage started late, two to three weeks later than the preceding couple of years. The reason for this
was the mild, cool spring weather experienced all across the southern part of the state. During the middle
and latter part of March the South-West region including Margaret River experienced a very unusual
amount of rain and very cool weather, ripening over this period was very slow. The first suggestions
of worry started to appear in growers eyes. Of recent history Margaret River has experienced very dry
conditions in March and early April with the season breaking mid to late April, not a problem with all the
grapes picked. But this year the concern was that if the season broke in mid April all the red grapes would
be still on the vine. However anyone that lived though the late April and early May in the South-West of
Western Australia will testify that never had we had a better, warmer early autumn. It was simply perfect;
cool crisp mornings and evenings but beautiful warm and sunny days; not too hot, textbook conditions for
great ripening especially for the red varieties.
Winemaking
The Tempranillo grapes were de-stemmed and fermented in open vessels with extensive
pump over cap management to aid colour and flavour extraction as well as optimize the tannin development.
The wine was pressed off skins and matured in French oak barriques, approximately one third new oak with the
balance one and two years old, for about 12 months.
Appearance
Deep garnet in colour with an vibrant cherry rim.