Silken Beastie Shiraz

Free your mind from stereotypes of the past, be willing to give things another go and imagine the beauty and subtlety that can be borne of an otherwise hostile environment. Not afraid to do the same ourselves, it's taken a second incarnation before we were convinced that we had captured the real beauty of the Barossa.

Above average rainfall in July and August filled soil profiles and dams but from then on the season was very dry. It is this dry weather that characterised the 2018 season and the low disease pressure coupled with ideal conditions for flowering and early development set the vines up for an excellent season. With virtually no rainfall between January and April, fruit quality in all areas was very good though some heat stress in February led to isolated defoliation. As we like to pick ‘on the way up’ our season began quickly with several varieties ripening at once but then progressed nicely, with the ability to pick when it suited given the settled weather. 

The fruit for the 2018 came from 3 different sites within the Barossa, all of which fall within the Ebenezer, Kalimna and Koonunga areas. Fruit was characteristically picked on the way up rather than the way down with a proportion hand picked and retained as whole bunches in the ferment. the remaining fruit was gently destemmed to leave whole berries before a native yeast ferment with twice daily hand plunges to aid gentle extraction. Each component part was aged separately for 6 months prior to blending and then a further 12 months in 300l French oak, of which 30% was new. The wine was then bottled unfined and unflitered.

Click below to download tasting notes in PDF format.