Sandalford Margaret River Shiraz 2022 (Australia)

Description

Oak, Raspberry, Spice

Deep garnet red with crimson hues. Red cherry, raspberry and pomegranate fruits with a hint of fennel seed and ginger. Alluring spicey notes of cardamon and white pepper overlayed with roasted nuts and white chocolate. Bright red fruit flavours and savoury spices. Mocha and toasty oak flavours evolve with the fruit flavours adding to the many layers within this wine. Soft acidity and fine-grained tannin provide length to the finish. This full bodied, elegant, cool climate style Shiraz drinks well in its youth, but can be cellared for up to 10 years with confidence.

The 2022 vintage could be best described as challenging. A reflection of the wetter than average summer impacting picking decisions. Our Wilyabrup vineyard however fared well and produced fresh, bright, flavoursome fruit to make wines from. The Shiraz grapes were machine harvested in the cool of the night and were phonologically ripe at the time of picking. The resulting wines are fresh, balanced and display wonderful varietal fruit characteristics.

The fruit was destemmed to static red fermenters and allowed to cold soak for three days before inoculation with a selected specialised yeast isolate. Routine pump overs lasting for around 10 days ensures optimum extraction of colour, flavour and tannin. The ferment was then drained and pressed at dryness to tank, allowed to settle, and then racked to tank for malolactic fermentation. The resulting wine was then matured in a combination of tank and seasoned French oak barriques for 12 months before blending, filtration and bottling.