Technical Data
Vintage
Crop levels for the 2007 Barossa reds were consistently down by 65%, with some blocks across the Valley yielding only 10% of the normal crop level (including, unfortunately, some of ours!!).
After a hot start to the season the actual harvest period was mild and dry. Not to forget though the vexatious 3” of rain that fell just two weeks before the start of harvest to cause a bit of splitting. Nature redeemed herself though, with dry days and a gentle breeze so that the split berries dried up and dropped off, causing no quality problems.
In 2007, due to the slightly unusual nature of harvest, we paid even more attention to our picking regime. We picked many blocks in four different lots to give us a full range of flavours. Hence when we looked at our total vintage, the alcohols for dry red ranged from 12.7% up to 17.2% - sensibly not too much wine at either extreme, but giving us a fascinating palette from which to blend.
Style
A sub-regional blend from the Krondorf Village area in the Barossa. Lifted sweet cherry nose and a long spicy palate, finishing with firm but rounded tannins.
Vinification
The normal Charles Melton melange of techniques: whole bunch fermentation, along with de-stemmed but uncrushed fruit. The cap management techniques used included pigeage & hand-plunging, as well as daily pump-overs throughout the 10-day fermentation. A combination of French and American oak barriques were selected to provide an oak balance in the resulting wine. No fining agents are used in the production of our wines.
