Ladies who Shoot their Lunch 2008 Shiraz

Region
The Strathbogie Ranges are inland, cool and elevated and are characterised by ancient granite boulders. The soil in the Strathbogie Ranges is typically sandy clay loam overlying orange clays of varying depths. The mean January temperature is 19.15°C and the average annual rainfall in our family vineyards is 700 mm (28 inches).
Harvest in the Strathbogie Ranges generally occurs from late February through to early May.

Vineyard
The majority of fruit for this wine comes from Rocky Hill Block on Whitegate vineyard (approx 66%). The remaining fruit (approx 33%) comes from Block 6 on Upton Run Vineyard.

Whitegate - Rocky Hill Block
Planted - 1996
Area - 7Ha
Soil - Sandy/Loam - V. Rocky
Aspect - North East
Slope - Gently inclined
Elevation - 475m

Upton Run - Block 6
Clone - PT23
Planted - 1996
Area - 5.7Ha
Soil - Sandy/Loam - V. Rocky
Aspect - South East
Slope - Gently inclined
Elevation - 494m

To eliminate undervine sprays we practice mechanical weeding. Our vines are irrigated using a drip system and the fruit is mechanically harvested.
The grapes for this wine yielded at 10 tonnes to the hectare.

Winemaking
This fruit was harvested  on a range of dates commencing 21 March through to 8 April 2008.
This wine was fermented in sweep-arm fermenters which tend to have a stronger fruit perfume and tannins with more grip.
We fermented the wine from 23˚celsius using a few yeasts throughout fermentation. The two most predominant yeasts used were AWRI796 and Enoferm Syrah.  AWRI796 is a reasonably neutral yeast and so lets the character of the variety, region and the season express itself. Enoferm Syrah is a high glycerol producer and so offers good mouthfeel. It should enhance varietal aromas in Shiraz including violets and black pepper.
We chose to ferment this wine in stainless steel tanks to preserve primary fruit flavours.
The majority of the wine (60%) spent time in the big old (5000l) English oak casks. The rest spent time in small format wood, with about half of this small format wood being new French oak puncheons. The rest of the small oak barrles being a combination of older French oak hogsheads and puncheons.

Special Comments: The 2008 vintage threw up a challenging heat wave which had us looking to the less exposed Rocky Hill and Block 6, for fruit with the strong perfume we value in this wine. A number of ferments were run in half full sweep arm fermenters. This creates a shallow and easy to homogenise cap making it easy to extract colour, flavour and tannin. The real magic of this wine is in the oak maturation. The majority of the wine is stored in century old large English oak casks. These barrels have 100 years of bugs and bacteria which add complexity to the wine. But most importantly the big wood lets the wine breath (a small amount of oxygen passes into the wine through the barrel timbers). This seems to stabilise the vibrant red colours, and capture the strong Shiraz fruit perfume fresh and violet like, at the same time letting aggressive tannins change shape and become soft and velvety.

The Wine
Colour  - Deep red. Youthful. Purple at the rim.
Nose - Perfumed. Highly aromatic. Violets. Spice - pepper. Restrained but chocolatey oak. Low level of dried fruit.
Palate - Rich dark fruit, full bodied, concentrated with very good length.
pH 3.6    T/A 7.4g/L    R/S 1.8g/L    Alc. 15.0%

Served perfectly alongside wild Venison saddle with cranberry sauce.
Cellaring recommendation: Medium term careful cellaring of 5-10 years.
Winemakers: Sam Plunkett, Victor Nash and Lindsay Brown