Description
Colour
Dark plum
Bouquet
Cassis and plum fruit flavours with hints of eucalypt and florals
Palate
Black fruits with a round mid palate, an elegant core of tannins and a textured finish
Grub Match
Marrow on toast, roasted quail or partridge
Cellaring
Drink up, but also a 10-15 year proposition
Vintage
A condensed vintage with full flavour! Déjà vu?! A warmer than usual spring and early summer led to quick healthy growth and a good fruit set. Together with a dry season, this led to an early start to vintage despite mild conditions and welcome rainfall in January. As a result, although harvest progressed quickly, phenology kept pace with sugar levels, leading to full flavoured wines with good acidity and ripe tannins. The hallmark of the vintage is its consistency across the board (reminiscent of 2012). A fantastic follow up to 2015. Same same but different!
Vineyard
Joch’s vineyard is in the Willunga foothills in the south of the McLaren Vale – 130m above sea level on deep alluvial stony clay loam.
Vinification
The fruit is crushed/destemmed and fermented at temperatures ranging from 20- 25°C for 10 days on skins. The ferment is managed by a variety of techniques, including ‘aerative pump overs’ and ‘drain and returns’ which assist in extracting colour, flavour and tannin from the grapes. At the end of fermentation, it is drained/pressed, and transferred to 3 and 4 year old French oak hogsheads to undergo MLF. Post MLF, sulphur dioxide is added, and the wines mature sur lie for 15 months. This wine was bottled in August 2017.
