Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz 2022

Appearance: deep, dark crimson, magenta edges

Aroma: dark forest berries of boysenberry and blackberry, black plum, tamari, roasted almond, warm cinnamon and salted caramel, red peppercorns, forest hearth, salted licorice, milk chocolate, hint of rosemary, salted olive

Palate: blackberry, cassis, smoked charcuterie, salted licorice, roasted mushrooms and forest floor,  cinnamon, fine ground red pepper,  fine chalky tannins, mouthcoating, persistent and taut

Cool wet winter with a very high rainfall followed by a warm to hot and dry summer. The vines grew quickly developing excellent canopies.  A delayed bud burst which affected flowering, gave lower yields. Good tannin ripeness (physiological ripeness) with deep colours in red grapes. This was a cool vintage, which allowed slow development of complex characters and highlighted the spice and pepper of the site. A combination of dark florals, black pepper and deep fruit.

Selectively harvested early morning in mid-April, the fruit was cool. It was destemmed into a closed top fermenter and allowed to cold soak naturally before the ferment was allowed to proceed, followed by gentle pumping over daily from 1-3 times. Some post-ferment maceration ensued for complexity and structure, building silky, refined tannins with intense colours for a total of 21 days on skins; the skins were then pressed gently, creating a powerful yet silky wine of fine grained tannins.

Aged in 100% French oak (51% new) of 225L barriques and 300L hogsheads, for 14 months on fine lees. The larger format vessel allowed better integration and retention of greater freshness. Blending occurred with no fining and minimal filtration. Bottled in August 2023, released March 2024.