Nose
The bouquet is of lemon, apricot, spice & saline notes with a floral lift. Ripe fruit on the palate, framed by paprika spice.
Palate
Textured & juicy, with spicy phenolics rounding out the wine. Intriguing & delicious.
Growing Conditions
Average rains over winter & spring but cool cloudy conditions caused reduced fruit set in some varieties. Summer was warm with no heat spikes & was very dry, perfect for berry development. Heavy cropping on some varieties necessitated bunch dropping to achieve full ripeness. Cooler conditions later in summer extended the ripening period
Harvest
Picked from a single block in two passes. The first parcel was harvested on 21st March 2023 at 12.6° Bé, second parcel was hand-picked on 23rd March 2023 at 12.6° Bé
Bottling
Bottled on 30th August 2023
Winemaking
The first parcel was fermented on skins overnight, then pressed to tank, briefly settled & racked to barrel to continue ferment. The second parcel was whole bunch pressed to barrel & wild fermented. Unfined.
Aging
The wine spent a further 4 months in neutral large format French oak.
Appearance
The wine has a pale golden hue derived from skin contact.
Food Pairing
Try this with char-grilled chicken souvlaki or aubergines stuffed with mozzarella & tomatoes