2024 McLaren Vale Tempranillo

TASTING NOTE Aromas of dark cherry, mulberry and fresh plum fruit, red liquorice, pepper notes and hints of bay and flowering thyme. Full flavoured wine showing characters of mixed berries, warm spices - cloves and anise. Soft and silky tannins with lingering flavours. VINTAGE SUMMARY The season started with a dry winter and start to spring. Warm days and quite cool nights meant a slow start to shoot growth, and smaller crops in some early flowering varieties, but in mid-November the weather pattern changed to give us a lot of rain and some humidity, which helped with shoot growth and to improve crop levels, but was challenging in the vineyards to keep disease under control. In early January the rain stopped thankfully, and we had dry conditions right the way through harvest, so disease was much less of an issue than it could have been. A few short heat waves provided some challenges, but generally the wine quality is very good. VINEYARD Our Tempranillo comes from a vineyard in the Tatachilla sub-region of McLaren Vale grown on loamy sand over light clay. The vineyard sits at approximately 70m above sea level and benefits from the cooling sea breezes coming from the Gulf St Vincent WINEMAKING The fruit was harvested cool and allowed to naturally warm, then was fermented in open fermenter for 7 days, then basket pressed. Once pressed the wine was racked off gross lees to old French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation and maturation. Wine remained in barrel for 9 months. No fining, vegan friendly. FOOD PAIRING Smoked lamb cutlets with polenta and roasted cherry tomatoes WINEMAKER Renae Hirsch VARIETY: 100%Tempranillo REGION: McLaren Vale, South Australia SOIL: Loamy sand over light clay. Awards & Reviews: 2023 Vintage 91 Points - Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion "From a vineyard in Tatachilla on loamy sand over light clay; wild fermentation; three days post-ferment on skins; eight months in older French puncheons. Tart boysenberry, cherry cola, tar, blackberry pastille, violet, cola, anise and leather announce variety across a wine of medium intensity and enough oak ageing to pull back any fruitful frivolity without unduly occluding."