2021 Mr Natural Shiraz

A cool and rather wet season was a welcome change to drought in previous years and allowed the vine to recharge and take advantage of a softer season.  Pristine fruit, wild ferment (no added yeast), nothing added bar a little sulphur dioxide at bottling.  Soft tannins, ready to go.

ENJOY IT WITH             

Canapes, lamb, mushrooms, braises and stews.  Would go really well with halved and roasted pumpkin.

CELLARING                  

Ready to drink now, but continues to evolve over 3-4 years or so.

Additional Information

Another in our Mr Natural series where we keep our intervention to a minimum, letting the vineyard speak for itself.  Sustainably grown fruit is simply crushed, fermented, pressed off and minimally filtered.  No oak.  Minimal sulphur dioxide is added at bottling.  There is no denying the Canberra District origins of this wine, with all the pepper, spice and rose petal we’ve come to expect.  A few unrefined edges to the wine are all part of the style, and you just don’t miss the oak!

GROWING                   

We just use our “top block” of shiraz for this wine.  Fiona prefers the fruit characters of this block for this parred down wine.   Clone is 1654 and the soil is clay loam over shale, on the warmer west facing slopes.  After many years of compost applications, these vines reliably get themselves in balance (leaf/fruit ratio) year after year.

MAKING                      

All the fruit is crushed into small open fermenters.  Gently hand plunged until the wild ferment starts around day 3.  More vigorous hand plunging until fermentation is complete and then pressed (not too hard) to tank.  Once malolactic fermentation is complete it is given a polish filter and a small amount of sulphur dioxide added just prior to bottling.