2023 McLaren Vale Tempranillo

Bright aromatics of red plums and cherry complimented with some earthy toasted spice. The palate shows generousity with flavours of blueberry and dark plum fruits and an earthiness that gives the wine a savoury profile. The tannins are fine grained and persistent, supporting the juicy fruit characters. 

VINTAGE SUMMARY

Weather conditions during spring were wet and windy which had an impact on flowering and resulted in small crops.  Cool and wet conditions continued into early summer, but thankfully the rain stopped around Christmas time to allow the fruit to start to ripen and to keep the disease at bay.  Harvest started much later than average due to the cooler conditions- Whilst we had to pick some of the reds around rain events they mostly ripened well with fresh and vibrant fruit flavours.

The 23 vintage wines are showing elegance and finesse, with fresh fruit flavours, fine tannins and good acidity.

Our Tempranillo comes from a cool climate vineyard at approximately 280m above sea level, adjacent to the picturesque Kuipto forest. Vines are trellised with a single cordon, on a loamy clay soil and is planted on an East facing slope.

Fruit was crushed and chilled to a stainless steel open fermenter for a 4 day cold soak then underwent a 100% wild fermentation. The wine was fermented to sugar dry on skins then basket pressed 3 days after alcoholic fermentation had finished when the structure of the wine felt balanced and complete. Once pressed the wine was racked off gross lees to old French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation and maturation. Wine remained in barrel for 8 months. No fining, vegan friendly.