McLaren Vale, Australia

Appearance - Brilliant, garnet with purple hues
Nose - Ripe blackberry and chocolate characters with a hint of tar. Elegant oak and tobacco notes.
Palate - Again intense blackberry fruit with ripe mulberry characters and sweet oak. A rich, luxuriant mouthfeel with concentrated fruit extract and grainy tannins that balance the fruit and alcohol. The integrated oak tannins persist through to complement the
lingering, jammy, fruit driven palate.

A big powerful wine with amazing length of palate and persistence, will drink well and improve with further bottle maturation for at least ten to fifteen years.

The perfect accompaniment to beef, lamb, duck & venison.

Vintage
Good winter rainfall in the McLaren Vale region and a mild start to the growing season allowed for healthy vine growth in the area and also early ripening of high quality fruit showing strong varietal characteristics. That coupled with the low crop loads in the Thomas Vineyards and the maritime influences experienced in the Willunga basin have resulted in fruit and therefore wine with intense ripe flavours and excellent structure.

Winemaking
Fruit with the most intense varietal characters was selected for the Reserve Shiraz wine and picked on 3 March 2005 and immediately transported to the winery for processing. It is fermented under cool conditions with a selected yeast strain to retain the aromatic characteristics of the fruit while developing the structure and tannin backbone of the wine.

The wine once fermented was pressed using a basket press (a particularly gentle method) then seeded with a selected malolactic culture again to enhance and retain the fruit characteristics. After malolactic fermentation is completed the wine is racked into predominantly new french oak for maturation. A mixture of french oak barrels is used to give an elegant complexity of oak characteristics.

During the 18 months maturation in oak the wine is racked to assist its clarification and reduce the need for filtration of the finished wine.

Minimalist handling techniques have been utilised at all stages of the production of this wine in an attempt to reduce maceration of fruit and retain as much of its premium fruit character while still enhancing the structure and intense flavour of the wine.

Technical aspects

Geographic region - McLaren Vale

Picking date - 3 March 2005

Variety - 100% Shiraz - Estate grown

Sugar level – 15.3 Baume

Alcohol – 15.5%

Bottling date – 3 November 2006

Cellaring potential – 10 to 15 years

Release date – August 2007