We release the our top Shiraz - The Hanisch - from the magnificent 2005 vintage plus two huge Shiraz from Magpie Estate - the Very Rare 'Malcolm' Shiraz 2005 and 'The Election' Shiraz 2005. Download Now
The century-old Mataro has just been picked. The fruit from this vintage is looking exceptional, although it is too early to call whether the whole vintage is "exceptional". This is the fruit that goes on to make the famed "Bulls Blood".
This is the last vineyard we pick during the vintage so it is important to ensure the juice, the seeds, and the skins are all properly ripened. This means that the tannin structure will also be ripe and the resulting wines a lot more elegant.
We use the same professional pickers for vintage as they know what we want as far as leaving raisined fruit, only taking the best berries, and ensuring the vines are left in perfect condition. Billy Barnes has been working with us since 2005 with all viticultural procedures throughout the year, and is one of the happiest and most reliable people we have ever employed.
Winemaking is simple if you keep it simple. We aim to let the fruit in the vineyard tell its own story, and make its own wine (we just take credit for it!).
The old winery was fairly primitive by today's standards, and although the work was exremely hard, we did enjoy it.
One of the old techniques we used was the utilisation of heading-down boards, especially for the Bulls Blood. This ensures that the finished wine will be smooth, and better retain the flavours and aromas within the juice.
The colour and aroma of this crushed fruit is amazing, and this will make a much bigger and bolder wine than that we have seen over the last couple of vintages. One to look out for.
Eric Neindorf who for many years delivered grapes to the old winery
where they were all hand unloaded. Here he presses a button in a new
truck to dump the grapes in the receival hopper at the new winery.
Red Wines
