McLaren Vale, Australia

Appearance - Brilliant, deep blood red with purple hues

Nose - Ripe rich mulberry and pepper characters with a hint of chocolate. Elegant oak and tobacco notes.

Palate - Again intense mulberry fruit with ripe plum and sweet vanillin oak. A rich, luxuriant mouthfeel with concentrated fruit and grippy fine-grained tannins that balance the fruit. The integrated oak tannins persist through to complement the lingering fruit driven palate.

A big powerful wine that while young and lively now, will drink well, but will greatly improve with age.

Vintage

2004 was an exceptionally good growing season in the McLaren Vale region. A long mild ripening period with small amounts of rainfall produced fruit with strong varietal characteristics and of exceptionally high quality. 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 flavours and excellent structure.

Winemaking

Fruit was picked on 2 March 2004 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 16 months maturation in oak the wine is racked to assist its clarification and reduce the need for filtration of the finished wine.

We have used Minimalist handling techniques 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 - 2 March 2004

Variety - 100% Shiraz - Estate grown

Sugar level - 14.8 Baume

Release date - December 2006

Cellaring potential - 5 to 10 years