Tabula Rasa #V18W

Living up to our name, we a delighted to introduce the rule-breaking Tabula Rasa. Each year, the slate is wiped clean and, with no preconceptions, every vintage is original. Drawing on fruit from historic vineyards across South Australia, this delicious wine captures the very essence of one season in a playful format that just demands to be drunk.

Though 2017 was a late, cool and sometimes damp season, it ended with lower than average rainfall for the late season. Above average rainfall in July and August filled soil profiles and dams but from then on the season has been very dry. As low as 40% of average rainfall in areas such as Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale. 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, particularly on Shiraz. As we like to pick 'on the way up' our season began quickly with a number of varieties ripening at once but then progressed nicely, with the ability to pick when it suited given the settled weather.

A complex vinification in order to make a deliciously simple wine. Both the Sauvignon and Semillon are given 24 hours skin contact before crushing, pressing, settling and cool, fermentation. The Arneis and Petit Manseng were hand-picked, foot crushed, drained and added to the larger ferment which prolonged the ferment and added complexity and texture. Post primary fermentation, the wine was racked off gross lees before spending 2 months on fine lees prior to bottling.