Nose
Dark sweet plums and black cherry with liquorice, star anise and black pepper spice.
Palate
Concentrated, compact and intense in berry and plum fruits with hints of brushed earth, minerals and savoury spice.
Growing Conditions
Another exceptional vintage from the premium, southern grape growing regions of Western Australia. Winter rainfall was close to the long term average. The growing and ripening seasons, while largely warm and dry were punctuated with rains and windy conditions that did affect set and subsequent yields in many varieties. Warm, dry weather from late summer to mid- autumn delivered even ripening for the harvest. This mild end to the season allowed all varieties to ripen perfectly with high natural acidity, fine fruit structure and silky tannins.
Winemaking
Harvest of the 2010 Flint Rock Shiraz occurred in late March. Vinification occurs in small open vat and closed stainless steel fermenters with diligent cap management to extract fine fruit tannin and strong varietal flavour. Each vineyard block is retained and managed separately throughout vinification and maturation in order to build a grape and wine history of the vineyards over time. Selected vats are run to barrel at 2 to 3º Be to capture new barrel characters from the final few degrees of fermentation. The remaining blocks are pressed at dryness to retain fruit vibrancy. Oak maturation is for 15 months in a combination or new and old French and American oak. The wine was blended in September 2011 after egg white fining and light filtration, and bottled
Appearance
Deep and dense garnet.
Food Pairing
Cantonese Roast Pork Belly.
