DRINKING WINDOW: Now - 3-5 years
Heavy rainfall in June and early July provided an exciting start to the season but was followed by extremely dry conditions throughout spring and early summer resulting in budburst and flowering up to 3 weeks early. Although these dry conditions were a concern it was somewhat tempered by cool conditions through December and the first half of January. A rainfall incident of 70mm in mid-January pushed sugars back and was followed by perfect warm ripening conditions with 30-32C days and cool nights down to 10C persisting for 2 weeks. These conditions resulted in a fast late ripening curve that has produced rich vibrant fruit throughout.
The fruit is sourced from two small, high altitude (420-450m) blocks of Eden Valley Riesling. Planted in late 70’s and early 80’s on shallow grey sandy loam soils with underlying granite, on south-east facing slopes. These blocks provide the ideal site characteristics for premium Riesling production.
Fruit was destemmed, crushed and must chilled before being bag pressed under inert gas conditions. Half of the juice was put through a 5 day solid suspension followed by a clean racking and inoculation with QA23, while the remaining half was treated more traditionally with a cold settling period of 48hrs, before racking and inoculation with QA23. Another small amount of fruit was crushed into a fermentation vessel where itunderwent a natural fermentation on skins until 7.5 Baume before being bag pressed to stainless steel where it was fermented on full solids. These components were combined in April, minimal fining additions were used to prepare the wine for bottling in late May 2015.
Opening with notes of toasty warmth, lemon curd, and fragrant honeysuckle. Slate-like minerality anchors the palate, where generous fruit volume and subtle sweetness add weight and depth.
