"90 POINTS. Light yellow. Deeply perfumed aromas of white peach, yellow plum, honeysuckle, smoky herbs and spices. Juicy and expansive, offering gently sweet pit and orchard fruit flavours and a touch of bitter lemon. Turns tighter with air and finishes with very good clarity and tangy persistence. This is pretty restrained for the variety, especially for an example from the New World." - Stephen Tanzer’s InternationalWine Cellar, Josh Raynolds.
There is an inviting perfumed bouquet of flowers and blossom that is more dominant than the peaches, apricot and spice we have come to expect from The Last Ditch.
The palate returns to focus to the characteristic stone fruits with nectarine and apricot and more fruit elements of orange peel and lemon zest. There is a nice medium weight to the linear palate with very fine textural tannins that carry a savoury almond kernel character.
As this wine ages, stone fruit characters will become more prominent. This wine will pair well with a range of foods, most notably with spicy Asian dishes containing ginger and/ or chilli.
The Vintage Sufficient winter rains set up the vines well with good canopies. December and most of January was very cool with only three days above 30°C until late in the month. Then there was a string of days above 40°C which caused some loss of yield. However there was little negative affect on quality and the mild weather that followed. This allowed the vines to recover and finish ripening in low stress conditions and the resulting wines are showing strong varietal characters.
The Winemaking Tasting grapes in the vineyard, Chief Winemaker, Chester Osborn, chose to pick when fully ripe to encourage varietal stone fruit characters. At the winery the grapes passed through the gentle Demoisy rubber tooth crusher before being basket pressed using a method developed at d’Arenberg to avoid oxidisation. After cold settling for three days the juice is racked off gross lees to old French Oak barriques. Approximately 30% of barrels undergo wild fermentation and all barrels are fermented on some lees until dry. After maturation for nine months the best barrels are selected for The Last Ditch and the wine is blended and bottled onsite.
The Name The Last Ditch Viognier is named after the McLaren Vale vineyard from which the fruit is sourced, which lies at the bottom of a gully in a big ditch. This site was originally inhabited by a bland variety from which Sherry is made called Doradillo, but was re-planted with Viognier, which is anything but bland, in 1995.
Don't Pay: $20
WBW Rating: 91/100
Closure: Stelvin
Region: Adelaide Hills SA
