The Duchess Red Sparkling Shiraz 2020

Appearance: dark deep purple magenta

Aroma: satsuma plum, dark black cherries, dark chocolate, cedar shavings, violet floral lift, delicate nutmeg oak, forest floor, tar and cedar and a touch of sarsaparilla

Palate: bright rich blue and black forest berry fruits; mulberry and boysenberry with plum and juicy cherry skin; dark chocolate, salted caramel and molasses tones wrapped in firm yet finely powerful tannins, salted licorice, savoury complexity; good fine acid core, framed by complete and seamless tannin, a fine bead of bubbles and long persistent finish

A warm, dry year with extreme drought conditions created a tiny crop of small, thick-skinned berries of great intensity, flavour, and structure and an opaquely dark colour. All harvested fruit was of Magpie Hill Reserve quality.

Selectively harvested in early morning, the fruit was cool when it arrived at the winery. It was destemmed into open top fermenters and allowed to cold soak naturally before the ferment was allowed to proceed, followed by gentle hand-plunging daily. Some post-ferment maceration was done for complexity and structure; and the pressing was gentle, creating a powerful yet silky wine. In June 2020, this wine was tiraged (sugar added) and sent to bottle for second fermentation where it slowly developed into the wonderful bubbly it is today. After 11 months resting on lees and developing richness, it was disgorged with no dosage (zero sugar) and released in July 2021.