Luddite Shiraz 2011

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Dark red and garnet hues.

Nose: Spice driven red fruit with hints of liquorice, cinnamon and toasty wood.

Palate: Brooding dark fruit and spice. Rich, natural, sweet fruit core. Lingering finish of savoury spice and balanced tannin.

The 2011 vintage was an extremely hot and dry vintage; we had no rain from the 1st of November 2010 till the 1st of May 2011. As a result the crop was very low, just less than 2.5 tons per Ha. The upside; very small berry size and fantastic concentration of flavours. The whole harvest fitted into one tank so both the old and new block were fermented together for the first time, therefore only pump overs and no punch downs.  The average fermentation temperature was kept below 24° which resulted in great fruit intensity.  After fermentation, the wine was allowed to post macerate for 3 weeks and went through malolactic fermentation on skins.

Both press and free run wine were blended together in the same tank.  After settling, the wine was racked to barrel of which 25% was new oak. 95% of the barrels were French Oak and 5% Hungarian Oak. The rest of the barrels were 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill. The wine spent 2 years in barrel after which it was blended and bottled.