Shiraz 2020

The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning and force cooled to 4 °C. It was then bunch sorted, destemmed and berry sorted on vibration tables by 25 highly trained staff. Depending on the vineyard the berries were gently crushed into a satellite tank and deposited in open and closed fermenters while some were kept whole. The must was dejuiced by 10 – 12% depending on the vineyard. It was given a cold soak of 3 – 5 days at 8 °C protected by a CO2 blanket. The juice was pumped over once daily during this period. The tanks were then heated to 18 °C and inoculated with either BM45, L2056 or D254 yeast. The fermentation temperature was allowed to peak at 28 °C and then brought down to 24 °C. The fermenting cap was manually punched down four times daily with one pump-over per day. The rest was given extended maceration after fermentation. The total time on the skins varies from 12 to 32 days. The wine was then pressed into 85% new and 15% second-fill Allier French oak barrels. The press fraction was separated. Malolactic bacteria were inoculated and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels. After malolactic fermentation the wines were given a low sulphur dose and left on the gross lees for 10 months. The wine was then racked, blended and returned to barrels. After a total of 20 months in barrels, the wine was racked and filtered through a coarse sheet filter. Bottling was done with fine sheet filtration. On a small number of vineyards, whole-bunch fermentations were done at varying percentages for greater flavour diversity.