79 % Tempranillo, 21 % Grenache. This wine is based upon three vineyards of Tempranillo, from cool sites in Blewitt Springs, the McLaren Foothills and our own estate vineyard atop the Onkaparinga Ridge... blended with old vine Grenache from a range of blocks up to a 103 years of age. Made up of 18 separate ferments picked over a full month to provide layered complexity and retain acid, and ranging from 0% whole bunch up to 40%. Each of the open ferments were from indigenous yeasts and worked very gently to preserve delicacy, and time on skins was extended in 2024 up to 6 weeks to further build tannin line. After basket pressing the wine was matured in a mixture of concrete eggs, old French oak puncheons, and foudres for 6 months maturation before bottling...
This wine combines lifted notes of pomegranate, sarsaparilla, violets and nutmeg typical of McLaren Vale Tempranillo, with the red berried perfume and succulence of old vine Grenache. This medium bodied wine is pretty, but deeply flavoured, and deliberately moreish. A lithe and juicy wine, it errs on the blood orange, cherry, red berry spectrum on the palate supported by a long line of ferrous tannin .
