Nose
Aromas of delicate red berries as well as savoury hints from the barrel maturation and lees contact get all of your senses going.
Palate
On the palate the low alcohol level really backs up the light body of this wine. High acidity reinforces the freshness and summery-nature of the wine and is balanced by some light red fruit notes and amazing mouthfeel and texture.
Growing Conditions
Spring got off to a good start after a typically wet, cold winter, and things were looking good. Margaret River experienced one of its wettest Novembers on record which, looking back, was the beginning of the late season issues for many vignerons. We had a very dry (pretty much 0mm of rain) for December and January, but then came a couple of very wet days at the beginning of February where 60-100mm of rain fell across the district.
This big rain event caused some severe and widespread disease outbreaks in many vineyards in Margaret River. Thankfully, working with great sites which have been well managed for many years, these more challenging conditions did not spell disaster for our grapes, unlike many down here.
Another big rain event at the beginning of March lead to further issues for growers which already had underlying disease pressure from the February rains and further big challenges for producers. Once again, we were thankful for our commitment to working with great sites and growers as our reds got harvested clean and in great condition.
Overall I would count this vintage as a stressful one and one that threw up many more things to consider when making our harvest decisions. Due to our careful vineyard management, and the fact that we actually pick our Syrah grapes weeks earlier than you would if you were making a red table wine of Syrah and just 'bleeding off' some juice to make into a Rosé, we have once again produced a wine to be proud of and one that will undoubtedly sell out rapidly.
Harvest
The fruit is grown on two sites. The first is a tiny block on the western edge of the Walcliffe sub-region, right in the middle of the Cape to Cape region in Margaret River. The vineyard has a WNW exposure and lies on free draining, stoney, Forest Grove soils.
From 2021 we have achieved access to another fantastic site in the Wilyabrup sub-region. It is a site which has yielded the fruit for one the most decorated of Margaret River Rosé wines over the past few years (but which must remain nameless here ;). More to the point is it is a fantastic site with gravelly, free-draining soils, a gentle northerly aspect and well tended vines of 26 years of age.
Winemaking
The fruit was hand harvested into small 8kg crates and brought immediately back to the winery for processing. The grapes were tipped 1 crate at a time through our Italian de-stemmer to gently remove the whole berries from the stem/rachis of the bunch. The grapes were de-stemmed directly into our basket press and pressed immediately with no extended time given for maceration and colour pick-up. The grapes were gently pressed directly to seasoned oak barrels yielding a very low juice recovery rate of only 50% meaning that only the very finest of the free-run juice was extracted from the fruit to make this wine.
The wine was allowed to undergo fermentation utilising the indigenous yeasts which came to the winery on the grape skins from the vineyard. The wine was fermented to absolute dryness (i.e. no sugar is left at all) and left for a couple of months on yeast lees to develop more complexity and texture.
Following a primary racking, via gravity, off the heavy yeast lees to clean old barrels the Rosé was bottled un-fined and un-filtered. Overall the wine spent 9 months in aged wood.
Appearance
This is a classic pale blush Rosé wine, with the light colour heavily suggestive of the light bodied nature of the wine.
Food Pairing
Great complexity and length for such a light and youthful wine, this is screaming out for a hot summers day and plate of chilled seafood, or perhaps a tin of good anchovies and olives.
