$129.80
| /
Region: Yarra Valley
Grapes: Shiraz
First Glance: Brooding, Black Fruit, Liquorice, Smoky
Acclaim: 98pts
The Wine:
Hand harvested, bunches are sorted before processing as whole bunches or berries. Half of the block ferments in a 3500L oak cask; 20% whole bunch, topped up for maturation with 100% whole bunch. The remainder ferments in half-tonne open fermenters, hand plunged twice daily. Pressed to release the last fermenting juice, then aged 12 months—50% in a three-year-old 3500L cask, 50% in French oak puncheons (10% new).
Dark fruits; brooding and mysterious. Cool-climate Shiraz, deliciously medium-bodied. Think charcuterie, graphite, and aniseed spice. Blue and black plums add fruit concentration, layered with liquorice spice, cured meat, and a smoky-char whisper. Medium-weighted, driven by fruit purity, with oak as a faint seasoning alongside subtle stalk grip.
The Review:
James Halliday - 98pts
"From a shiraz vineyard planted in 1973 adjacent to Yarra Yering. A vivid crimson purple colour, a mix of whole-bunch and berry fermentation and maturation in large format French oak. This is a glorious shiraz, bursting with life and what will surely be a 40-year life span, so perfectly framed and balanced are its black cherry and blackberry fruit duo, tannins obediently bending the knee to the fruit."
