Limb Vineyards Reserve Single Vineyard Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

Fruit was harvested at optimum ripeness from a vineyard I hand selected due to extensive experience with as I have hand crafted many Gold and Trophy winning wines from this area. Following on from picking we crushed the fruit and allowed fermentation with whole berries to enable high levels of natural fruit and acid to combine perfectly which also developed a lovely backbone of tannin. The wine was matured in both new and old oak over an extended period of 2 years then the wine cellar stacked prior to being labeled for release.

The Wine Barossa Valley Marananga Shiraz 2016

Hand selected and hand picked fruit was used for this wine and it underwent fermentation in stainless steel open top fermenters, and was pumped over twice a day, the wine was pressed then transferred to new hogshead barrels where it completed its malolactic fermentation. The wine was topped regularly and racked once whilst maturing in barrel.

The Colonial Estate Exile Barossa Valley Shiraz 2015

The bulk of the vines are dry grown old vines, which are pruned severely and receive two runs of green harvesting finally producing one tonne to two tonnes per acre. Exile grapes are then hand picked and the grapes sorted. The wine is fermented in vats after extreme cold maceration. The wines have their malolactic in new French oak, and are thereafter in the same oak for 24 months prior to bottling with minimal filtration and then further aging in bottle.

Gnadenfrei Estate St Michaels Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016

Despite well below average rainfall and warm conditions during the growing season, our vines produced another outstanding vintage. Heavy rainfall in late January followed by ongoing mild days and cool nights allowed ideal ripening conditions. The fruit then matured with an early harvest. The resultant 2016 wines are outstanding and feature lifted pure red fruit characteristics, savoury tannins, great depth of flavour and sheer colour intensity. Select Old Vine Barossa Shiraz sourced from vines aged 50-80 years were used in this wine. Traditional winemaking techniques were employed and the fruit was handled in a gentle hands off approach to ensure the vineyard remained the hero. This Shiraz was matured for 16 months in 1 and 2 year old oak hogshead barrels (75% French 15% American). 

Upon release allow the wine to breathe for at least a couple of hours, this wine is built to last and should drink well for the next 10-15 years.

Whistler Wines Estate Barossa Valley Merlot 2014

Grown on our Estate at Whistler Wines, Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga, Barossa Valley. Clone D3V14 planted in 1997 on dark loam and biscay soils, 100m east of our Cellar Door building. 

Harvested in two separate picks, this wine was fermented wild on skins for 7 days before it was basket pressed and put to oak. 20% new American oak hogsheads and 80% second and third use French and American hogsheads were used to retain the fruit character before blending and bottling after 20 months in oak. This wine was bottled with no fining and no filtration. 

Western Barossa Wines Barossa Valley GSM 2016

We hand picked a small section of Grenache from Block 4 rows 7-23, Shiraz from block 5 rows 1-12 and block 8 rows 3-9 to created a style of wine guided by the fruit initially. We wanted a wine driven by fruit yet surrounded in a bed of spicy flavours and tannin therefore selected these small sections as the fruit produced dark berry flavours with wonderful spice characters which would infiltrate not be overwhelmed by second and third use oak. The fruit was transferred to the winery and the fruit was combined together to ensure it worked harmoniously through the entire winemaking process; macerated for an extended period with seeds and stems to allow us to give a vision of the vineyard in the final wine. The wine was left in this state for 30 days and hand plunged which ensured we extracted all the colour, aromas and tannin we could. Basket pressed into barrel again allowed us to continue the hands off method and ensure fruit purity was key again this ensures longevity. The wine was not topped during its 256 days it spent in barrel then finally it received minimal filtration and fining. This wine illustrates just how beautiful a wine from the warm Wild West can be, in a word moreish.

A wine, which will appear beautifully, round and lavish if drunk upon release whilst the oak tannins provide a backbone, which will ensure drinking over the next decade will not be a problem.

Fu Barossa Valley Shiraz 2010

This wine is sourced from a single old vine vineyard from what we consider one of the Barossa Valley’s finest growers. 2010 was one of the standout vintages of the last decade. An ideal vintage, which gave us the benefit of perfectly, ripened fruit. The smooth flow of vintage allowed us to select specific fruit parcels and allowed us to define the wine as much in the vineyard as the winery. These grapes are brought into the winery, and crushed into old vats where the fermentation is initiated by “wild” yeasts found on the grape skins. Careful extraction and short post fermentation maceration is followed by soft pressing. The wine is transferred into brand new oak barrels where the malolactic fermentation is completed before racking and maturation for 36 months in barrels. A careful assemblage and barrel selection is followed by minimal filtration and bottling.

A wine which will benefit immensely with time in the cellar to settle and develop. It will have a great lifespan of around 15 years plus.