Nose
Concentrated cool climate notes of satsuma plum, black cherry, molasses, mocha and cracked black pepper.
Palate
The palate has a focused and dense core of red flesh fruits. Mineral notes of graphite, dry savoury herbs and sweet oak, gently season this restrained yet powerful wine.
Growing Conditions
The Great Southern began the growing season with just adequate soil moisture and catchment fill. Cool and blustery spring weather in November impacted flowering, set and early spring growth. Summer was punctuated by hot spells, which magnified the effects of little spring or summer rain. The south facing vineyard sites did receive some cooling breezes off the southern ocean and the more continental sub region of Frankland at least experienced cooler nights. These hot, dry conditions accelerated ripeness with sugar accumulation well in advance of flavour in late March. A sporadic deluge of between 25 to 60 mm in early April, as autumn temperatures cooled, did slow the red maturities. The below average yields have produced wines full of concentrated fruit, ample acidity and fine tannins.
Winemaking
Harvest occurred in late March. The wine is a blend of the best parcels from the Lange Blocks of 3 & 8 in Frankland River, which were planted in 1997 and 2000 respectively. Small parcels are hand-picked and all harvests are sorted to remove matter other than grapes, before fermentation.
Vinification occurs in open 4 tonne vats in our Denmark winery. Gentle cap management at warm fermentation temperatures facilitates the extraction of fine fruit tannin and strong varietal notes.
Select parcels are run to barrel between 2 & 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. After pressing, each batch is matured separately in order to build a wine history over time.
Maturation occurs in 30% new and 70% older barriques and hogsheads of which 95% are French oak and 5% American oak. After approximately 18 months in barrel, a good integration of oak and grape tannins is achieved and blending occurs around September. The wine undergoes egg white fining and light filtration, prior to bottling .
Appearance
Dark plum.
