In our Estate Shiraz ($18) we aim to highlight fruit quality and balance. To offer a clear distinction between our Bridie’s Reserve Shiraz (see below), and the Estate wine, we blend in a parcel of McLaren Vale Shiraz (40%). This is to give the wine greater fruit depth and a contrasting flavour profile. We blend and bottle after 18 months maturation in mainly one and two year old oak hogs heads. The 2005 Estate Shiraz has an alcohol of 14.0%, a pH of 3.35, and a TA of 7.2 g/L.

The Bridie’s Reserve Shiraz ($35) is our flagship red wine. Producing only 300 cases or so, most of the wine is quickly snapped up by our Members. In 2005 we harvested (by hand) low yielding, old Shiraz vines from our property in Lovedale, and also from a dry grown vineyard in Pokolbin. With an average vine age of 30 years, and yields generally below 2 tons per acre, we had little trouble gaining the level of flavour intensity or phenologic ripeness that we were chasing. Fermentation in open tanks was followed by 18 months maturation in a mixture of new (60%) and old French oak barriques and puncheons. We aim to make a regional, stylish expression of Shiraz where fruit intensity and balance are considered of far greater importance than glossy oak or high alcohol levels. The 2005 Bridie’s has an alcohol of 13.0%, a pH of 3.5, and a TA of 6.4 g/L