REGION: Mornington Peninsula
Perfumed, lifted and concentrated there is macerated cherries, wood spice and earthly plum and beetroot notes. The palate is complex and elegant. Very balanced with everything from fruit, tannin and acid in perfect harmony. There is a textural and mineral edge to the wine, however, fruit showing on the nose will only evolve with time and show more on the palate with time in the bottle. Possibly the best release of this wine to date.
Winemaking: The fruit is handpicked across multiple vineyards & blocks, and destemmed into 2 ton open fermenters as whole berries and left to start fermenting naturally. It is not touched until a 2-3° drop in baumé, which allows fermentation to occur inside the grape berry to increase the aromatics of the finished wine. Once fermentation starts strongly then the ferment is hand-plunged 2-3 times per day for 15 days. The wine is left on skins for post ferment maturation for another 15 days. It is than pressed off skins and racked to barrel. 10 % new oak across d’Aquittaine and Sirugue extra tight grain light toast. In spring the wine is racked and returned to barrel. After a total of 12 months barrel maturation the wine is bottled without fining or filtration.
