Vintage conditions The 2019 growing season was a challenging one from the start with a very dry winter and spring with frost events in September disrupting budburst. Windy conditions affected flowering and further frost episodes and hail in November caused further challenges. Very hot and dry conditions during summer and lack of rain resulted in small berries and low bunch weights resulting in the lowest yields in recent decades. The resultant wines have great colour, intense flavours and firm tannins. Vineyard selection The “Home Block” Shiraz was exclusively sourced from our estate-grown Block 3A Shiraz vines planted in 1994. Winemaking Once the grapes have been identified to be of optimum maturation and flavour ripeness, the parcels are brought into the winery where they are destemmed and crushed into the open top fermenters. Manual pump overs are conducted twice daily to provide extraction of colour, flavour and tannins. Towards the end of fermentation, the wine is drained and then pressed to a combination of predominately new French oak barrels for 19 months maturation. Careful barrel selection takes place before the wine is blended. The wine is neither fined nor filtered. Tasting Evaluation Colour: Dark purple, with almost black core. Aroma: Intense bouquet of dark plum, black cherry, espresso, with mocha notes. Vanilla pod and gingernut biscuit hide in the background. Palate: Saturated palate of dark berries, savoury French oak spice complimented with fine grain tannins. Vibrant red apple acidity provides focus and length.