The fruit for this wine comes from the Yarra Valley and Heathcote. The aroma has lovely pepper, blueberry and black cherry characters. The palate is a combination of these flavours, with excellent tannins and structure. 

90 Points - Robert Parker's THE WINE ADVOCATE, March 2009

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Vintage and Winemaking

2005 was a relatively cool season in both Heathcote and the Yarra Valley, the two sources of fruit for this wine.  The season gave the Heathcote fruit more perfume than usual, and better structure.  The Yarra Valley component benefited from a warm dry March which gave lovely fruit definition.  The Heathcote component was picked on the 13th March at 14 baume, while the Yarra component was picked on the 29th of March at 14 baume.  Both vineyards are 10 years old. 

The fruit is crushed and destemmed before fermentation in a combination of small open pots and static fermenters.  These are inoculated with Rhone yeast.  We work these ferments regularly to extract tannins and phenolics.  Fermentation takes about 6 days, with a peak temperature of 29˚ C.

Post ferment the wines are pressed and transferred to French oak (10% new) after malolactic fermentation.  The wines spend about 18 months in oak before bottling.