Winemaking

• The hand selected cultivars for this blend were destemmed without excessive crushing and all unwanted stalks removed on the sorting table. The whole berry component into the open stainless-steel fermenters was at 30%.

• After 12 hours of cold soaking each of the musts was inoculated with a commercial yeast strain best suited to the specific variety.

• Pump overs were given three to four times daily to extract colour, tannin and flavour. Each tank also received a single rack and return for further soft extraction.

• Fermentation for each of the cultivars ran at 24-28 degrees Celsius and lasted for 5- 7 days.

• Thereafter the wine was gently pressed and free run was consolidated with sufficient press fraction to enhance structure.

• The wine was gravity fed to 80% new, 10% second fill and 10% third fill 225 litre French oak barrels for secondary Malolactic fermentation.

• After 12 months of maturation the component cultivars were blended together and racked back to barrel for a further 6 months of integration.

• The specially selected barrels were lightly filtered prior to bottling.