Nose
On the nose displays powerful black fruits of blackberry and mulberry, backed up by Merlot’s complex notes, with lots of mushroom, tar and earth.
Palate
The palate has immediate impact with intense dark fruit notes of cherry and blackberry filling the front and mid palate. Underneath is a firm structure of acidity and tannin, but both are in good balance, such that the texture is smooth, with no drying or bitter astringency. The finish combines classic Merlot style of soft charry oak and bitumous notes.
Growing Conditions
Before we get too carried away, we must acknowledge the sheer quality of the 2015 vintage. While we lay claim to being competent grapegrowers and winemakers, it’s all easy-peasy when Mother Nature serves us up a year like this, one that will likely join the ranks of Margaret River’s finest. All the numbers speak to the quality. During calendar year 2014 we had 1244mm of rain, around 25% above average, so our unirrigated vineyards were well watered. The temperatures during the growing season were consistently warm, without extreme heat. There were 33 hours when the temperature exceeded 33⁰C and the hottest day was only 37.3⁰C – the sort of conditions where the Bordeaux varieties move steadily to full flavour ripeness. For all its greatness, 2015 had a down side – yield. Merlot produced 5.46 t/ha, down 33% and Cabernet Franc 5.79 t/ha, down 30%. Our best explanation for this lies with inclement conditions during flowering. So, to the harvest. The Cabernet Franc came off on 4th March at 13.2⁰ Baume and the Merlot on 12th March at 12.6⁰ Baume ripeness. Each batch was hand-picked, destemmed then transferred to small open tanks for fermentation and hand plunged 3 times per day for extraction of colour and flavour.
Bottling
29/08/2017
Winemaking
The Merlot was on skins for 15 days and Cabernet Franc for 14 days. After fermentation the Merlot was racked to barrels on 13th April 2015 and Cabernet Franc on 31st March 2015. All the barrels were 228 litre French oak and the Merlot received 9% new. In December 2016 all the batches were racked to stainless steel for blending. The Merlot was blended with 9% Cabernet Franc. The finished wine was then returned to barrel. On 21st August 2017 the wine was racked to stainless steel in preparation for bottling. Fining trials were carried out but none improve the wine, so it was then sterile filtered and bottled on 28th August 2017.
Appearance
The colour is bright, deep brick red.
