Shiraz

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Grapes were hand-picked and sorted in the early morning at Cavalli in three separate pickings. 58% of the grapes were crushed and fermented in stainless steel tank with pumpovers multiple times daily. The remainder was fermented in small open-top vessels, each with a proportion of wholecluster (15% of the full volume of Shiraz) and manual punchdowns 3-5 times daily. After pressing, the Shiraz completed malolactic fermentation in tank.

Winter 2021 brought sufficient cold and rainfall to ensure even, healthy budbreak in spring, just slightly later than usual. The good health and reserve status of the vines lead to vigorous growth and much effort was made by the vineyard team to maintain balanced canopies with sufficient light penetration and air movement. January saw four very hot weekends in succession that sped up veraison, but the remainder of the ripening season was relatively slow and cool, leading to good colour and flavour development but low acids and high pHs. This cool weather and sporadic rainfall heightened the risk of fungal diseases so the labour was kept exceptionally busy maintaining our spray program, opening up bunch zones for air flow and removing any diseased bunches by hand. The red cultivars were allowed extra hang time though March, giving them fantastic colour and phenolic development, despite weathering a 17mm downpour in early March. Yields were 20% up on 2021, but 16% down on the blockbuster 2020 crop. All in all, the 2022 vintage shows excellent flavours and structure, but the biggest challenges were certainly disease and pH management. The vineyard and cellar teams navigated these obstacles well and I expect that they will be very proud of the products of their fantastic work this vintage.

Maturation took place initially in stainless steel for 6 months (with a very light addition of French oak staves for 4 months), and subsequently in 2nd, 3rd and 4th-fill 225L barrels for 5 months.