Vintage 2014 was a season of extremes for us all in McLaren Vale. We had great winter rains which gave us a full soil moisture profile in time for a dry and windy spring. They don’t call it windy Willunga for nothing. If we’d had a set of wind chimes on the property, we would have heard them all day and night from September to January. We had a series of very hot days in January, followed by about 45mm of rain over a 48 period in early February which slowed ripening of our red grapes right down. We had picked all of our white grapes prior to the rain ‘event’ and so we had a decent break between whites and reds, like the good old days. There was no splitting of any of the grapes left on the vine after the rain, mercifully, either. Joch’s analysis of 2014 is that it was a gentleman’s vintage – everything came in slowly and in order, not like the mad rush of 2013. Every vintage is different; truism of our time, and of our industry.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it….this saying really gives me the pip but in reality it holds very true for how we make this wine; we use old tried and true wine making techniques year in and year out. We pick the Cabernet when it is flavour and sugar ripe, then crush it and ferment it in small open vessels. Fermentation finishes in barrel; we use mainly old oak (about 70%) and the balance in new mainly French hogsheads (300l) barrels. We blend back some of our cordon cut, vine dried Cabernet to the wine just prior to bottling, a practise we have undertaken since we began making the wine. That’s it.

• The Wine Front June 2016 Gary Walsh

  Fresh faced, more juicy style, cherry pip and almost joven, though a wee bit meaty. Medium bodied, gently chalky tannin, juiciness of pulpy fruit, slight tang on finish of convincing length. Tasty.

  Rated : 92 Points
  Tasted : Jun-16

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