The grapes are handpicked and fermented with natural yeasts in open stainless steel tanks at temperatures up to 32 degree Celsius. All the pressings are returned to the 100% new French oak barriques and the maturation lasts for 18 months before bottling without fining or filtration.
This is always the most beautiful wine in the cellar and is the flagship of the Clarendon Hills Syrah Range.
The nose shows intense blackcurrant and cranberry fruit, and the subtle cedary cinnamon spice, barrel-ferment and oak derived aromas, violet and mint scents, as well as liquorice and chocolate smells. Interwined is this wounderful green edge that lifts the wine into a cool climate sepctrum which typifies the cold year. These aromas combine with some cassis, blueberry, and cranberry, with lingering mocha and plumy fruit and are just showing through amongst a long, intense vibrant, gritty fruit tannin finish.
The fruit is 100% McLaren Vale Grenache hand-picked from two very small 1910's planting's at Blewett Springs. The 2004 mild season really suited these hardy old vines with their deep roots. Medium red purple in colour.
The wine displays complex leather & spice bouquet with notes of cherry and prune. An elegant multi-layered palate wich has savoury herb notes with subtle berry flavours gracefully balanced with lively acidity and powder dry tannin. The seamless smooth palate finishes refreshingly dry with lingering warmth.. Shows finesse.
Picked from our own Semillon vines planted in the early 1960's. All of our dessert wines are made the same way. We do not use Botrytis infected fruit or fortification in any of our dessert wines. After hand picking the grapes are placed into trays and semi dried.
This drying process highlights and intensifies natural flavours and aromas. Giving a very long clean and crisp finish combined with wonderful fruit.
The RunRig has often drawn comparison with the beautifully fragrant & tautly structured wines produced from the steep slopes of the Northern Rhône Valley’s Appellation of Côte Rôtie.
The RunRig is a structured, muscular wine with phenomenal density, dry vintage port-like concentration, and magnificent notes of smoke, blackberries, cassis, leather and coffee. A hint of viognier’s sweet marmalade character comes through as the wine sits in the glass.
The Highland clans used a “RunRig” system to distribute land amongst their clansmen in a series of widely dispersed holdings.
The emphasis not on any one farm, but rather the communal element of the whole. Shiraz from old dry grown vineyards is blended with viognier, complementing the strengths and complexities of these individual parcels of fruit, whilst giving the resulting wine a further dimension..
2003 vintage:
Winter started with heavy rains, which tapered off resulting in below average rainfalls and a successful budburst in early spring. Flowering and set occurred in November, promoting uniform berry development and bunch numbers were on average for the season. Veraison for Shiraz and Cabernet started in late January with the older vines producing lighter crops. The height of summer saw 65mm of rainfall in the last week of February requiring swift viticultural practices to prevent the onset of disease and fungus. Our 2003 Barossa Shiraz displayed great colour and depth of flavour. Yields overall were below the long-term average but the grapes were of good quality and the resultant wines display terrific potential.
Wine description:
Bright purple plum colour. Glossy red fruits and spiced plum cake on the nose with a hint of vanilla spice. The palate shows swathes of rich generous fruit, ripe blackberry intermingled with soft cedary spice. A fine coating of gentle tannins washes over the palate with a long and persistent finish to end.
The 2002 season was characterised by a cold, wet winter and spring, which produced lower yields with good, thick-skinned berries. The cool and dry summer ripened fruit gradually and a warm, dry autumn allowed the grapes to ripen fully, producing some of the best and most exotic characters seen for many years.
The nose shows intense blackcurrant and cranberry fruit, and the subtle cedary cinnamon spice, barrel-ferment and oak derived aromas, violet and mint scents, as well as liquorice and chocolate smells. Interwined is this wounderful green edge that lifts the wine into a cool climate sepctrum which typifies the cold year. These aromas combine with some cassis, blueberry, and cranberry, with lingering mocha and plumy fruit and are just showing through amongst a long, intense vibrant, gritty fruit tannin finish.
Kay's are specialist traditional red wine makers utilising grapes from their own 22-hectare Amery Vineyard. The grape varieties grown are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Viognier, Grenache, Mourvedre and Muscat Blanc.
This winery endeavors to produce to make rich full-bodied fruit-driven wines (using the original Open Fermenters and Basket Press) with small oak cask maturation.
Upon release, ‘The Dead Arm’ Shiraz has a vivid, young, dense, purple-red colour. Very intense aromas with a complex combination of fragrant spices and violets, dark cherry, blackberry and blueberry, are made more complex with great liquorice, pepper and integrated svelte of boot-polish like characters. The taste is rich, gutsy and virile, with attacking spice, dark liquorice, cherry, blackberry, plum and dried black olive. The level of fruit weight masks the framework of oak tannins; however, the mineral fruit grittiness is balanced with a very long fruit-fragrant, persistent spice will yield a wine of great ageing power.
The Struie sources fruit from the high altitudes of Eden Valley imparting delicate spice, white pepper and fruit characters. While the Barossa component displays a richer, deeper, more brooding flavour and intensity. The combined structure will reward extended cellaring.
Chester Osborn, the remarkable person behind this enormous array of both impeccably high quality and value-priced wines, deserves considerable accolades for what he is able to achieve at all price ranges. If you love Australian wines, d’Arenberg is a winery to seek out as these offerings all possess abundant soul as well as character. In short, the accolades that proprietor/winemaker Chester Osborn receives not only from The Wine Advocate, but virtually everybody in the wine world, are all well deserved.
Appears bright cherry red with a darker plum coloured core. The nose shows licorice and dark fruits, toasty oak with a chocolatey rum & raisin aroma. The entry to the palate is soft with a rich solid palate that is typically McLaren Vale, with blackcurrant and stewed plum flavours. The structure is typical of Fox Creek showing ripe fruit tannin with integrated oak complexity.
Named after a hill that rises above the Glenmorangie distillery, The Struie is the home of a pub called the Altman Arms.
The Struie sources fruit from the high altitudes of Eden Valley imparting delicate spice, white pepper and fruit characters. While the Barossa component displays a richer, deeper, more brooding flavour and intensity. The combined structure will reward extended cellaring.
The view from the Struie down across the Dornoch Firth is as inspiring as that of the Valley floor from the Barossa Ranges. This wine is a blend of Shiraz from the Eden and Barossa Valleys, combining the best of both regions.