2006 Vintage

Changes
Grampians Shiraz

A ripe vintage, it retains a spine of acidity and juiciness that I love but has the grunt and meatiness that keeps it a bit wild and interesting, in the same way the previous vintage does. The tannins are formidable despite a light fining and filtration, but my sounding boards have not found them oppressive and nor do I. It received approximately 30% new French oak from a variety of coopers, some who I will continue to use and some I wont. Stylistically the 2006 is a progression towards a tighter fruit profile, and more structure, but there is still far to go.

Westgate Vineyard
Grampians Shiraz

I constructed about 20 different blends to arrive at the final, in an effort to achieve harmony in the wine where oak, acid, tannin, fruit weight and alcohol were all indistinguishable. The final blend consisted of 44% new oak, mainly from Taransaud Troncais barrels. It was racked only once (to assemble the blend), then bottled un-fined and un-filtered. Stylistically it is purer in fruit, more delicate and pretty yet with underlying power. It has a pure core of blackberry and raspberry with some meatiness and wonderful mouthfeel that keeps me coming back for another sip. Moreover it is undeniably a wine of the vineyard. It has elegance, length and softness, yet big potential to age not because of its weight, but because of its fruit quality, its older vines and most of all its balance.