Vintage Conditions

The region received good early rains in autumn 2020 to replenish some moisture in the profiles, after coming off the driest back to back seasons ever experienced.  Winter rains were average and those vineyards that supplemented with irrigation to get moisture to depth set the vines up for spring growth and spring rains were above average. Temperatures in November were above average without any significant weather events paving the way for fantastic fruit set. January 24th was the only day that the region experienced temperature above 40ºC. Not surprisingly, the subsequent mild conditions meant bunch and berry size remained average, achieving a great balance between quality and quantity. A vintage that can be described as almost “perfect”, not only ideal sugar ripeness but also physiological ripeness for quality wine production.

Vineyard Selection
The fruit is sourced from 8 rows of our estate grown Nero d’Avola, planted in 2012, located in Marananga in the Barossa Valley.

Winemaking

The grapes were hand-picked at optimal ripeness and crushed to Pearle oak open top  fermenters. The wine underwent a natural fermentation with hand plunging 3 times daily until the completion of fermentation. The wine was then pressed through a small hand basket press and filled to neutral French oak 300L hogsheads for 10 months. The wine completed natural malolactic fermentation in barrel with no SO2 used until bottling.

The wine was neither fined, nor filtered.