Two Hands Deer in Headlights Shiraz 2002 1.5L

Wow, This one scares me! Amazingly dense black in colour, the bouquet is expressive and filled with plums, mocha, aniseed, coffee, Asian spices and melted chocolate with secondary notes of clove and tobacco.

The mouthfeel is dense, lush and sweet with an oozy density and a layered fruit driven palate, this Lily’s is more like the 2002.

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.

A special McLaren Vale Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon blend from the excellent 2002 vintage. Originally made for a private client from Fox Creek's own grapes, it was for sale to private customers and not available for normal retail sale. The blend in this wine is 60% Shiraz and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Shiraz was fermented on skins for 8 days and about 10% of the wine saw barrel fermentation during the later stages of the fermentation. The Cabernet Sauvignon components were fermented to dryness, before being transferred to oak. Maturation was in approximately 20% French and 80% American oak, with about 30% of this being new oak.