Awards and Accolades:

Best of the Rest - James Halliday's Top 100 2017

From the Producer

The growing season began with late budburst after a relatively cold, wet winter. The mild spring which followed ensured that there was good flowering and fruit set, in fact some yields needed to be addressed with crop thinning. Fine, mild conditions prevailed during summer, which ended up being one of the coolest growing seasons in recent years. Harvest commenced late, at the end of February, with abundant Marri blossom keeping bird pressure very low whilst the whites were harvested. March was relatively wet with a significant rain event after most of the white fruit had been picked.

Fortunately, the April that followed was glorious (the driest April since 1982 in fact) with fine weather and no heat extremes experienced at all. Our last harvest was on May 4th, almost a month later than usual. The majority of the Shiraz was sourced from our Boodjidup vineyard, while the Graciano component is from our Stevens Road vineyard.

Two small batches of Shiraz were harvested cold, and pressed immediately to minimise colour extraction in the juice. The juice was cold settled with enzymes and fermented in tank using an aromatic yeast strain, and lees stirred regularly for two months adding texture to the wine. Graciano was harvested specifically for Rose in 2017, also tank fermented, a small amount of used in the final blend of the Exmoor Rose, adding a lovely spicy /savoury element.