We seek to make a sophisticated, elegant sparkling red that really shows off the quality of our vineyard. The Malbec fruit was hand picked at 12.5 Baumé and fermented in open tanks. The wine was matured in a mixture of one and two year old French oak barriques for 12 months before tirage. After bottle fermentation the wine was then left to rest on its’ lees for almost 24 months. The generous maturation time on yeast lees has given this wine a greater level of complexity and texture. The wine is quite dry relative to the market (10 g/L residual sugar) in an attempt to highlight the quality of our fruit and to emphasise the effects of the extended maturation time. We are only disgorging 150 cases at a time, and trying to stagger the release of the remainder of the wine as much as demand will allow.

Our entry level Shiraz has become a bit of a surprise package over recent years. Since 2002, the wine has been a blend of two regions. This release is a blend of Hunter Shiraz, harvested from our younger vines, and around 40% Barossa Valley Shiraz, from an old dry grown vineyard. All fruit was hand picked. During the 5 day cold-soak period, 10% of the juice from the Hunter fruit was bled off to our Rose to concentrate flavour and structure. Fermentation was in open top fermenters, and plunged by hand. Following ferment, MLF took place in barrel, where the wine was sulphured and left to mature for 18 months. The oak for this wine is around 80% French, 20% American, 50% of which is new. In terms of style, we try to produce a wine that is distinct from the Bridie’s Reserve in ways other than simply the amount and quality of new oak. To achieve this we use the multi-regional fruit characters, and focus on achieving a full style, that is both powerful and immanently drinkable.

The 2004 vintage provided us with outstanding Shiraz. The hot and dry conditions over the ripening period concentrated fruit flavours, lowered yields, and ripened the berries to an ideal level. The fruit was harvested by hand, and then crushed into traditional open top fermenters for a three day cold-soaking period prior to fermentation. During the fermentation the must was plunged by hand twice a day to extract colour, flavour and tannins. The wine was then pressed and transferred to a mixture of new and one year old French Oak barriques for 18 months maturation.

In the March Newsletter I wrote a fairly sobering summary of the 2007 vintage. Whilst the quality of wine produced was very high, the exceptionally low yields, and the prospect of no water for the following year was taking its toll on my morale. It is now, after some 300mm of rainfall over the last two weeks, quite amazing to reflect on those comments.

Pink Success…

The very much hyped 2007 Pavilion Rosé is already grabbing the attention of wine critics.

The 13th Lovedale Long Lunch took place on the weekend of the 19th and 20th of May. The event was a great success with estimates putting attendance at around 14,000 people over the two days.