• Chocolate oak
• Ripe plum
• Mixed spice
• Fruit compote

"This is splendidly fruited and inviting on the nose showing dark fruit richness together with seductive notes of anise, roasted hazelnut, cocoa and floral. The palate delivers excellent weight and fruit intensity, wonderfully complemented by silky texture and fine-grained tannins. It’s rich and generous with a lengthy delicious finish" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit

The 2017 Pirathon Blue is an overachieving Barossa Valley Shiraz. This bold Barossa Shiraz has an inviting bouquet with aromas of ripe plum, Christmas cake, fruit compote and chocolate oak. The full-bodied palate is rich and intense with an abundance of flavour and a deep colour. The length is very generous and completes this very enjoyable Barossa Shiraz. Pirathon Blue Shiraz helps in the challenge of what to pick by being a consistent, high quality and traditional Barossa Shiraz that you can rely on. For that special occasion you simply do not need to think and worry about what to choose but can rely on this for a good quality, hearty Shiraz.

The grapes were harvested from the low-yielding vineyards of traditional family growers in the north-western Barossa districts of Greenock, Moppa, Belvidere, Koonunga & Ebenezer. Each vineyard adds its own exclusive dimension to Pirathon Shiraz and combined they produce the ultimate blend.

The 2017 growing season started off well with above average rainfall during the winter and spring months. September saw record rainfalls over double the long-term average providing plenty of water reserves leading in to Summer. Temperatures during Summer were moderate allowing a cooler and longer ripening period. March provided favourable harvesting conditions with little rainfall and above average temperatures allowing for all fruit to be picked at optimum flavour and ripeness.

Each vineyard was harvested at optimum maturity across a two-month period from March 10 – April 25. Following harvest, each individual lot of grapes was crushed into a separate open top fermenter. During fermentation, hand pump-overs gently extracted colour and flavour from the grapes. After 7-10 days on skins the fermented grapes were pressed with a traditional press. The wines were then filled to new and seasoned French and American oak hogsheads for maturation for 24 months before each lot of wine was racked from the barrel and carefully blended. The wine was bottled without fining, ensuring the true expression of the vineyards in the bottle.