Variety: Shiraz/Viognier

Region: Yarra Valley

Tasting Notes: Wild & Explosive

This wine is wild and explosive with deeply scented and spicy aromas of plums, cherries and cranberries. It is a powerful, creamy textured red with lashings of dark berry and apricot flavours.

Background Information: Made from100% estate grown fruit, from a 20 year old Dixon Creek plot. The fruit was hand picked and hand sorted before destemming to open fermenters and naturally fermented. Both foot plunging and pumping-over were employed to delicately extract colour, flavour and tannin. The wine was given only 10 months of oak maturation to retain the fresh, fleshy fruit characters, before bottling.

What we mostly love about this Rhone blend is its perfume. It’s a complex mix of exotic spices and red berries. This is the winery’s third release of this blend and they’ve co-fermented less Viognier (5%) this time around, which has definitely worked.

Here are a couple of reviews:

“Startling depth of colour and hue; a mouth-coating array of flavours featuring spice, anise almost into dried fruit (as apposed to lolly sweet or to dead fruit characters). Excellent tannin texture and structure.”
RATING: 95 TO: 2025 PRICE: $30
James Halliday – 2008 Wine Companion

“This gorgeous red is sublime. Meaty, toasty, reduced stock, barrel ferment bouquet, with mixed spices and berries coming through too. Elegant medium to full body with Rhone-like character and great drinkability.”
RATING: 94
Huon Hooke, Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine

“…….A role model for Australian Shiraz / Viognier blends.”
RATING: 94
Gary Walsh, Winorama

Vintage: 2005

State: Victoria

Country: Australia

Alcohol Content: 14.5%

Standard Drinks: 8.3

Preservatives: 220

Bottle Top: Stelvin

Bottle Size: 750ml

Red/White Wine: Red