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. 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.

The Italian Amarone style of wine has been our enduring inspiration for the White Boar over the past decade and more. Inspired by, but in no way a copy ; we use Shiraz and Cabernet and not Rondinella, Corvina and Mollinara which are the indigenous varieties used to make Amarone. We cordon cut our vines and then dry and concentrate the grapes on the vine as opposed to harvesting them and drying on racks as they do in Italy. After about 10-12 days drying on the vine, we pick and crush and ferment the grapes, before maturation in big old oak barrels before bottling and further maturation.

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