Nose
Excellent combination of red and black fruits – red currants, mulberries, black berries and plums. Despite the presence of all this fruit there is a background of spice, leather and even musk.
Palate
Straight away there is a spread of mulberry and blueberry fruit flavour, long round and generous, so much so that the tannins sit quietly underneath, waiting for the aging process to reveal them. The vintage was such that we didn’t make very much of this wine but boy, it’s a gem. The best we’ve made, by some margin.
Bottling
08/10/2014
Winemaking
Each variety was destemmed and then pumped into closed stainless steel tank for fermentation. Extraction was pumping over, 3 times per day and skin contact was for an average time of 14 days. After pressing, each batch was allowed to settle on gross lees and was seeded for malolactic fermentation. Once this was completed, the wines were blended and then racked into wood in May 2013. All the barrels were 225 litres French oak, none of which was new.
After 16 months oak aging, in September 2014 all barrels were racked and blended in stainless steel and the wine was prepared for bottling. Fining trials were carried out and it was decided an egg white fining was beneficial in improving tannin balance.
Finally, the wine was sterile filtered and bottled.
Aging
10 to 15 years cellaring.
Appearance
Very deep brick red hue; bright condition.
