Shiraz

Please note: Award stickers are applied at the producer's discretion and may not be present on all bottles.

It was given a cold soak of 3 - 5 days at 8 °C protected by a CO2 blanket. The juice was pumped over once daily during this period. The tanks were then heated to 18 °C and inoculated with either BM45, L2056 or D254 yeast. The fermentation temperature was allowed to peak at 28 °C and then brought down to 24 °C. The fermenting cap was manually punched down four times daily and one pump over per day. The rest was given extended maceration after fermentation. Total time on the skins varies from 11 to 24 days. The wine was then pressed into 80% new and 20 % second-fill 300 liter, Allier French oak barrels. The press fraction was separated. Malolactic bacteria were inoculated and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels.

The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning and force cooled to 4 °C. It was then bunch sorted, destemmed and berry sorted on vibration tables by 25 highly trained staff. Depending on the vineyard the berries were gently crushed into a satellite tank and deposited in open and closed fermenters while some were kept whole. The must was dejuiced by 10 - 12% depending on the vineyard.

After malolactic fermentation the wines were given a low sulphur dose and left on the gross lees for 10 months. The wine was then racked, blended and returned to barrels. After a total of 20 months in barrels the wine was racked and filtered through a coarse sheet filter. Bottling was done with a fine sheet filtration. On a small number of vineyards whole bunch fermentations were done at varying percentages for greater flavor diversity.