Nose
The nose is tightly coiled spring of restraint belying the wine’s youth. Waiting to emerge is a dark and dense array of fruit characters.
Palate
The oak spells class as it holds the whole nose together. On the palate the fruit characters follow through with lovely cedar oak as a backdrop. The tannins are ripe and silky providing great structure to the wine that augers well for bottle age development. This is a wine with great potential; it is restrained and reeks of class.
Growing Conditions
The latter half of the 1999 growing season was bright and sunny with ideal conditions for red grape ripening. It became clear during March of 1999 that the Shiraz at Station 4 on the Howard Park Leston Vineyard in Margaret River was demonstrating.
Winemaking
We knew that we had a good chance of fulfilling our ambition to produce a 100% Margaret River Shiraz of a standard that could be released under the Howard Park regional brand. After harvesting at night at full ripeness the fruit was de-stemmed and fermented in open stainless steel tank with twice daily pumpovers to macerate the skins and aid colour and flavour extraction. The resultant wine was matured in 100% French oak (65% new, 35% 1 year old) for approximately 18 months and in bottle for 6 months.
Food Pairing
Rich sweet plums with black forest cake and hints of spice.
