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Grape Variety: 100% old-vine shiraz grown in the Barossa (Eden Valley and Barossa Valley).
Background: The Barossa has a core of traditional growers of Lutheran descent dating back five generations, staunchly continuing the traditions of their forebears. Occasionally one or two parcels of fruit of overwhelming quality come over the weighbridge; this wine is one such example. The 50-year-old, low yielding vines are growing in low-fertility Neoproterozoic soils more than 542 million years old, ranging from red-brown earths to terra rossa. The fully ripe black shiraz grapes were sourced from grower vineyards in Tappa Pass and Light Pass and were vinified in traditional open-top fermenters.
Vintage Description:Vintage 2005 was early, warm, quick, fantastic quality with good yields - and exhausting. Above average winter rains led into a beautiful spring, with some early November frosts but good flowering weather in late November and early December. Summer was wet and wild, with an amazing roller-coaster of weekly thunderstorms that helped maintain good subsoil moisture. Rains in January were followed by a dry February, and the dry weather continued right through the autumn. Warmer than usual autumnal weather caused an early, compact harvest of above average yields.
The late Indian summer lasted into May, well after all the fruit was harvested, at maturity figures, flavour and colour not seen before the 2002 vintage. The quality of the 2005 vintage is sure to be ranked as one of the best on record, after 2002, with all varieties showing strongly. Once again the signature varieties for Eden Valley, ie, riesling and shiraz, performed brilliantly.
Wine Description: Very deep crimson in colour with purple hues. An intense nose of ripe plums, violets and briary blackcurrants with granite and gunsmoke hints. The ripe, ultra-concentrated palate has rich sweet fruit and is complex, dense and layered with velvety tannins; exceptional depth and length.
91 Points, Wine Advocate # 181 Feb 2009.
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American
