We had good spring rains but lower summer rainfall than we usually receive in McLaren Vale. As a result of this dry growing period, disease pressure was low (no mildews!) although we had a couple of heat spikes in late January and some hot days in February which resulted in reduced crops compared to 2018 (down by up to 30% depending on variety).  Whites were picked early in February and picking of the reds started at the beginning of March and was largely all over by the end of the month. Quality is terrific however, and we have great hopes for the reds from 2019 and judging by this (new) white wine, the whites are pretty smart too.

Keep it simple stupid we said to Joch, and we reckon he’s done a good job. There’s nothing too clever about making this wine; pick the grapes when they are ripe and showing lovely red fruit characters. Crush and ferment them in small open fermenters, shove into stainless steel tanks (no oak characters required0, allow the wine to go through MLF (‘Malo – malolactic fermentation, google it if you need more info) and then bottle it under screwcap. Puritan is our luscious version of a Spanish ‘Joven’ style wine which is made in Rioja using Tempranillo. We don’t have any Tempranillo here at BoB (Joch isn’t that mad about the variety) so we used what we do best instead – Shiraz.

• James Suckling

  A very smartly executed, preservative-free bottling of ripe, rich McLaren Vale shiraz that has red berries, dark plums and hints of chocolate througout. Bright, crunchy palate. Fresh, mouthwatering and delicious. Handy depth of flavour too. From organically grown grapes

  91 points

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