Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Australian Shiraz Harvest time

We are getting right into the Shiraz harvest at Yangarra, the really hot January/February brought forward the physiological ripeness while slowing down the sugar maturity. This is a winemkaing dream, because you end up with all the ripe flavours and tannins, dense black colour at lower sugars resulting in wine with less alcohol and more finesse.

We are trialling some whole cluster (25%) fermentation to add complexity to the fruit profile as well as the tannin structure. I've seen some amazing wines done like this both new and old world, PAX is a big advocate of this fermentation technique, so i'm excited about the potential results, and being such an ideal Shiraz harvest the timing is perfect!

4 comments:

Heather said...

ohhh. i'm excited to hear how it turns out!

Joie de vivre said...

Congratulations! That's exciting to hear!

Esi said...

Glad the hot weather had a good effect. Hope it turns out well!

Le Meems said...

Sending ice cold lemonade thoughts your way :)