2010 Gravel Pit Shiraz
Winemakers - 2010 Gravel Pit Shiraz
Blend:
95% Shiraz, 5% Viognier
Region:
Willow Bridge Estate, Geographe, WA
Bottled:
July 2011
Release Date:
August 2011
Technical Data:
- Alcohol 13.5%vol
- Total Acidity 5.8gm/lt
- pH 3.41
- Residual Sugar 2.6gm/lt
Winemaker:
Simon Burnell and Jane Dunkley
Winemakers Notes:
~ Style ~
A clean and fresh yet macho Shiraz trying to be a bit soft and sensitive.
~ Background ~
Adding small amounts of the white Viognier grape to Shiraz has its origins in Cote Rotie in France’s Rhone Valley. There are two possible reasons for doing this and both may have their place. The first is the more obvious – to add the softness and perfume of the white to counterbalance an otherwise ‘butch’ Shiraz. Cote Rotie does translate as ‘The roasted slope’ due to its sun exposure after all. The second (and perhaps counter-intuitive) reason relies on the fact that Viognier is more tannic grape than most reds. Adding its grapes to a Shiraz ferment adds a lot of tannin which helps to stabilise and enhance the Shiraz colour and build a richer body into the wine – strangely without seeming more drying. So the two reasons aren’t necessarily exclusive. At Willow Bridge, our Gravel-Pit block does tend toward reflecting its rocky name, so the wine does benefit from being co-fermented with some Viognier – we have found around 5% to be about the best amount. The wine spent 16 months in a combination of French and American oak, 25% of which was new.
~Facts and Figures ~
The season: Another excellent season.....A typically wet and windy winter and early spring came to a screeching halt as the vines started to hit their straps in October. The main growing season through to the end of April was consistently a degree or so warmer and 20% drier than the 30 year average, with less than 100mm of rain falling over those six months. A lack of significant extremes allowed us to avoid any vine-stress and harvest each variety in optimal condition.
Vineyards: The Gravel Pit Shiraz block was planted on our Ferguson Valley Estate in 1997 on classic free draining WA "Marri soil" (a deep layer of ironstone gravely loam over reddish friable clay) with a gentle westerly aspect at 240-260m above sea level. The slope immediately below the vineyard was quarried to provide the gravel to build the local roads - hence the name and giving an idea of just how gravely it is.
~Tasting Notes ~
Appearance: Medium depth, but very bright purple.
Nose: A full box of spices - curry leaf, cardamon, Szechuan pepper etc intermingles with Maraschino cherry and fresh white fleshed stonefruits (odd for a red?), but with some graphite and earth to complex it out.
Palate: Rich caramel from the oak upfront narrows to a fine, mid-weight fresh fruit drive through the middle. Ripe, chewy, nutty tannins round it out.
Cellaring: May well go ten years or more but don't bother if you like it now.
