2009 Vintage
The Wine
The colour is deep plum red with a purple hue. The nose is heady with strong plum, spices and red berry notes. As the wine opens there is lovely cedary oak coupled with leather and dark chocolate. This wine has good length and persistence in the mouth, there’s loads of plum and red berry flavours and balanced tannins. Will age gracefully until 2019.
Vintage 2009
Bud burst occurred mid to late September, after a third consecutively dry winter where well below average rainfalls were recorded throughout the King Valley. An extremely dry (less than 5mm of rain was recorded) October was followed by above average rainfall in November and December, this promoted shoot growth. Vintage conditions were quite cool except the week of high temperatures in February. Given the nature of the conditions, most varieties reached physiological and flavour maturity at low potential alcohols. So the whites have intense aromas and tight structure and the reds are very good with strong flavours and great colours. This should provide the reds with extended ageing potential.
Vinification
The fruit for this Merlot came from the Myrrhee valley, the Merlots from this part of the King Valley tend to be fine and elegant. The vineyard site has an easterly facing aspect with clay loam soils. The canopy is managed effectively to allow enough light to filter through to maximise fruit flavour and colour. The fruit was harvested in the cool of the day so fermentation could be delayed to help colour extraction from the skins. The grapes were crushed, de-stemmed and inoculated with yeast to maintain and accentuate varietal character. Fermentation was carried out in open fermenters, the juice was allowed to reach 30°C to keep the resultant wine fruit driven and fresh. Post fermentation the wine was pressed off the skins and 50% was aged in barrels and 50% in stainless steel where the wine spent 10 months prior to bottling.
Maturation
Type of Oak (%): 50 Gamba French
Oak Age: 3 years old
Oak Toasting: 100% Medium
Fining agent: egg whites
Filtration: Sterile
Final Analysis
Final Alcohol: 13.8%
Final Acid: 6.7 g/L
Final PH: 3.50
Bottled: February 2010
Released: May 2010
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