2009 J&J Vineyards LimeStone Block McLaren Vale Shiraz

Fruit – Fruit is sourced from an award winning premium vineyard in central McLaren Vale. The vineyard terrior ranges from sandy red loam over yellow clay, to light brown loam over limestone. The 2009 vintage saw the vines recovering from a dry hot 2008 season. The result was below average yields and beautiful ripe grapes from more ideal weather conditions during ripening. The grapes were picked at 14.0 Baume and the cropping level was approximately 2 tonne to the acre.
Wine Making – The grapes were harvested early in the morning on the 5th of March 2009, at the optimal fruit ripeness, with the fruit arriving at the crusher within the hour, then de-stemmed and crushed, allowing small portions of full berries through to induce initial wild yeast fermentation. The crushed fruit and whole berries were immediately chilled and pumped to open fermenters. Yeast was added and the fruit cold soaked for 2 days extracting colour and flavour while remaining soft. After 8 days the fruit was pressed and pumped into the 100% Radoux American oak hogheads, with 20% placed in new Radoux American Missouri barrels to add lift without dominating the intense varietal character. Maturation was completed after 10 months in oak, with the fruit and oak well integrated.