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 hour 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.

When you think of Puritan think fresh, vibrant and YOUNG! Look at the picking dates and the bottling date. We make this wine to be enjoyed immediately in the vein of Spanish ‘Joven’ style reds wines that are made from Tempranillo. Puritan is a Shiraz, however. We pick and ferment the wine, allow it go through MLF (malo, or malolactic fermentation) and then bottle it immediately. Puritan spends no time in oak and has no added preservatives (sulphur dioxide).

• The Wine Front 8th October 2014 Gary Walsh

  Hey, baby, I like it raw…
  Yeah baby, I like it RAW!!!

  No oak. No preservatives. No hipsters harmed in the making.

  Floral, meaty, crushed black and blue fruit, raspberry jam and pepper. Ripe and thick with silty tannin, lashings of bouncy mixed berry fruit – red, black, blue – the lot. Acidity is good. Finish is good. Lot of joy in this wine. Great to drink Shiraz with so much energy and vivacity. Really lovely wine.

  90 Points

  Tasted : Sep 14
  Alcohol : 14.5%
  Price : $20
  Closure : Screwcap
  Drink : 2014 - 2016

• The Advertiser Top 100 Wines Light Reds July 2014

  Organically grown and, more precisely for those looking out for it, with no added sulphur dioxide preservative, this catches the eye with vibrant colour then fresh and bouncy, purple to black shiraz grape and wild blueberry aromas, plus a super-juice flavour bomb of a palate. Designed to drink in its youth.

• James Halliday's Wine Companion Magazine February/ March 2015

  Deep crimson-purple; a preservative-free (no S)2 added) wine with lusciously velvety black fruits, the tannins deliberately minimised to encourage early consumption, although the screwcap is the saviour of the preservative-free wines. This is as good as they come.

  91 points

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