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. Joch’s analysis of 2014 is that it was a gentleman’s vintage – everything came in slowly and in order.

"Scarce Earth is a McLaren Vale initiative exploring and celebrating the geological climatic and soil diversity of the region. All wines come from a single block, a small plot of land with a unique flavour profile and personality."

This 2014  Shiraz is made using grapes from our Ding’s Vineyard. It has been hand-made, hand bottled and is unfiltered. The wine was open fermented then matured without any time in oak barrels at all, to allow the expression of the vineyard in its purest form. (Ding's Block is named after Joch's first dog who is buried under panel 1 in row 1. I'm not being morbid, it's just a fact.)

Soil Type:          Urrbrae stony loam

Geology:           Christies Beach formation, Quaternary period

Elevation:          130 metres

Vine Age:          12 years

Volume:              33 dozen

• The Wine Front June 2016 Mike Bennie

  Dings Shiraz comes from Gaffney Road in Willunga and is set on Christies Beach Formation of soils. Battle of Bosworth had three wines in the Scarce Earth program this year.

  Wonderful perfume of red berries, saltbush, faint herbs, raspberry liqourice. Full flooding of the palate with fleshy, juicy, almost crisp textured red fruits, set amongst raft of fine tannins. Bounces in the palate with almost elastic texture, finishes long, a touch zingy with acid, but peppery too. Nice work.

  Rated : 92 Points
  Tasted : Jun-16

• 2016
• 2014
• 2013