Awards and Accolades

97 Points, Special Value Wine - James Halliday, Wine Companion
"Bright crimson-purple; 110yo vines don't necessarily result in powerful fruit (and wine), but they certainly do here; it is brimful of blackberry, licorice, warm spices and French oak, the conclusion of primary fermentation taking place in that oak (new and used) and gaining the integration and mouthfeel only this technique provides. A final barrel selection produced an exceptional wine."

From the Winery

Vintage 2013 had a good start with warm weather providing ideal conditions for flowering, resulting in excellent fruit set. The weather throughout summer continued warm and dry and these conditions sped up vine growth and berry development. The warm days and cool nights provided superior ripening conditions leading to wines with excellent varietal characters. Great results were delivered with reds exhibiting excellent fruit concentration, high colour density and a firm but fine tannin profile

Fruit for this wine was hand-picked from our original vineyard or Stentiford’s block planted in 1893 and tended by Captain Stentiford. This block is located on the ‘Laira’ vineyard in central Coonawarra , situated on classic Terra Rossa soils. After picking, the fruit was destemmed and crushed into a small open stainless steel fermenters where it was fermented on skins for a period of eight days with rack and return pump overs twice a day to ensure full extraction of colour, flavour and tannins.

The wine was then pressed while still slightly sweet (around one Baume) and pumped to a mix of new and second use fine grain French oak Barriques and Hogsheads to complete primary and malolactic fermentation (MLF). Once fermentation was complete the wine was racked off lees, the barrels cleaned and the wine then pumped back to barrels for maturation. A further two gentle rackings (siphoning barrel to barrel via gravity) were conducted through the maturation period to achieve a high level of clarity and aid wine development. After 19 months maturation each individual barrel was assessed for quality and the final blend then assembled for bottling.