• French oak
• Raspberries
• Star anise
• Gravelly tannins

Wonderful perfume on this medium weighted shiraz, raspberries, red fruited and with lots of spice characters. Star anise and excellent regional Ironstone gravelly tannins and a light sprinkling of black pepper with a sweep of fruit on the mid palate.

The complexity of this wine no doubt comes from the three clones of shiraz now grown in the estates certified organic vineyards (Houghton’s Clone, 174 and 470) and the eight small parcels used for this shiraz ((making up 95% of the wine) with 5% of this being whole bunch fermented, supported by the use of small additions of Touriga Nacional (2.7%), Malbec (0.9%), Marsanne (0.9%) and Viognier (0.5%).

This wine was made from fruit sourced from our family’s certified organic estate vineyards. A selection of shiraz was sourced from eight small parcels across the estate vineyards including two additional clones of shiraz (clones 470 and 174) that complement the established Houghton's clone that has been planted since 1988. The use of whole bunch fermentation (5%) from our Geneva Double Curtain block and the inclusion of additional varietals planted progressively over the past 20 years have been precisely blended give the wine complexity and uniqueness.

2021 was really positive for Shiraz. Everything looked good, the crop was a healthy size and everything ripened beautifully. We picked in April, pretty late but the fruit was aromatically charged with lots of spice and pepper. Considerable dedication to viticulture has in turn allowed us to make the Shiraz we are making today.

This wine was fermented as long and slowly as possible, at temperatures not exceeding 28C in open fermentation tanks that allowed the cap to be worked by gentle plunging. Twelve different parcels fermented separately from different clones on different parts of the vineyard, some co fermented with small portions of Viognier and Marsanne, some with different levels of hand-picked whole bunches. An extended maceration period followed completion of the ferments to allow optimal texture and flavour extraction. It was aged for 14 months in 500 litre French oak puncheons of differing ages.