The 2012 vintage followed a very hot and dry 2011. The result of two dry vintages in a row was that the grapes ripened very quickly. We were forced to pick earlier than normal and everything all at once. The upside was again very small berry size and fantastic concentration of flavours. We split the ferments into two batches, old block and new block, but due to the smallness of the crop, both these batches were blended immediately after pressing. We kept the fermentation temperatures below 24° which resulted in great fruit intensity. After fermentation, the wine was allowed to post macerate for 4 weeks and went through malolactic fermentation on skins.
Both press and free run wine were blended together and, as mentioned earlier, all the wine went into one tank. After settling, the wine was racked to barrel of which 25% was new oak. 95% of the barrels were French Oak and 5% Hungarian Oak. The rest of the barrels were 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill. The wine spent 2 years in barrel after which it was blended and bottled.
Grapes were sourced from Luddite vineyard sites:
We picked on the 22nd February 2012
Average analysis of fruit at harvest
26.0° Balling, TA – 6.7 g/l, pH – 3.45
Tasting Notes as at 24 June 2016
Appearance: Dark garnet and still showing full colour to the edge of the glass.
Nose: Savoury spice, liquorice, coriander and pepper and opens up to cloves and dark fruit.
Palate: Juicy decadent entry. Plums, spice and smoked meat on mid pallet. The rich dark fruit is balanced by smooth ripe tannins with a long satisfying finish.
Analysis of the wine
Alcohol: 15.59% pH: 3.53 TA: 5.3 g/l RS: 3.5 g/l