Take it to the Grave Barossa Merlot 2023 (Australia)

Description

Blackberry, Mocha, Oak

Deep ruby in colour, fresh red plum and baked blackberry. A fine tannin with undertones of mocha. Delicious!

Take it to the Grave is a joint venture between Nicholas Crampton and South Australian winemaker Corey Ryan created to deliver interesting and rewarding wines whilst challenging a few established rules and preconceptions. The Take it to the Grave Shiraz takes on the mysteries and individual personalities of old-vine vineyards.

Spring was cooler than usual and with more rain events bringing soil moisture levels up. Summer likewise was cool yet with enough sunny days to enable beautiful albeit slower ripening. This made for a later vintage than prior years, but the resultant fruit quality is very, very good.

The fruit is partially hand-harvested before de-stemming and cool fermentation in small two tonne open fermenters with regular hand plunging. Matured in seasoned French oak (20% new French) for six months before bottling with minimal filtration and Sulphur addition.