Technical Data
Vintage
Crop levels for the 2007 Barossa reds were consistently down by 65%, with some blocks across the Valley yielding only 10% of the normal crop level (including, unfortunately, some of ours!!).
After a hot start to the season the actual harvest period was mild and dry. Not to forget though the vexatious 3” of rain that fell just two weeks before the start of harvest to cause a bit of splitting. Nature redeemed herself though, with dry days and a gentle breeze so that the split berries dried up and dropped off, causing no quality problems.
In 2007, due to the slightly unusual nature of harvest, we paid even more attention to our picking regime. We picked many blocks in four different lots to give us a full range of flavours. Hence when we looked at our total vintage, the alcohols for dry red ranged from 12.7% up to 17.2% - sensibly not too much wine at either extreme, but giving us a fascinating palette from which to blend.
Style
Liquorice and plums on the nose. Seamless fine tannins. Good food-friendly acidity in the mouth. Will build and richen with time.
Vinification
The normal Charles Melton melange of techniques: whole bunch fermentation, along with destemmed but uncrushed fruit. A higher percentage of French oak (65%, of which 20% was new oak) was used to add the lovely cedar notes on the nose. Oak aged for 20 months, the wine was then blended and given a light filtration to bottling. No fining agents are used in the production of our wines.
