We had terrific winter and spring rains leading up to vintage 2017, a marked contrast to the previous year, proving once again if proof were needed, that every vintage is different. We had a cool early part to spring too, combined with the spring rain. Flowering was about 3 weeks later than the previous year which of course meant that vintage was 3 weeks later than normal, or as some old locals said sagely, back to the old normal. There was a very long and slow ripening period which is terrific for allowing grapes to develop their flavours. We had a pretty dry February March and April, once the spring rains finished in mid-January. Overall a late vintage with some incredibly promising reds and outstanding whites.

Steady as she goes on the winemaking front: same, same every year with maybe a tweak of the oak regime (more barrels from one cooper than the other, a bit more toast, a bit less). So; every year once the Shiraz is flavour and sugar ripe it is picked, crushed and fermented in small open vessels and has ‘pump overs’ twice or three times daily. Once almost finished fermentation the juice/ wine is pumped into barrel (about 30% new barrels every year, the balance older oak – all French, although sometimes an American oak barrel is used) and finishes the ferment in there. That’s it really. A few ‘rack and returns’ (where the wine is pumped out of the barrel, the barrel cleaned and then the wine returned to barrel) occurs during the 14 month maturation then the wine is bottled without filtering or fining. Done. We do also use a small component of cordon-cut, vine dried Shiraz (which is used to make the ‘White Boar’), which we add to the blend just before bottling. It’s part of our Bosworth Shiraz ‘recipe’ and we’ve been doing it since we started making the Bozzie Shiraz.

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