Description
Vines
The Watervale Riesling vines, were planted in the early 1970’s and is situated in the heart of the township of Watervale, in the Clare Valley. The soils are classic red loam over soft rock.
Vintage
The 2021 ripening season in the Clare Valley was very mild, with a cooler than average summer. There was little summer and late spring rainfall but the mild temperatures allowed for a long even ripening period.
This vineyard is dry grown, so yields were below average in tonnage, but produced great intensity and flavour.
Winemaking
The Grenache was hand-picked in late March. It was destemmed and crushed, then passed through the must chiller to burn down to 5 degrees C, and pumped into the membrane press to sit on skins.
After 6 hours, the flavour and colour of the juice was at the desired level, and the fruit was pressed stainless steel tanks for cold settling.
After 7 days of cold settling, the juice was racked with minimal lees pickup, warmed, inoculated with neutral wine yeast and slow, cool ferment took place. The wine was then stabilised, filtered and bottled in July 2021.
