Whole Bunch Shiraz 2021

Dry Grown Whole Bunch Shiraz 2021

Hand Picked fruit from our "young Shiraz block" which is 20 plus years old and dry grown. Whole bunch fermented showing brilliant fragrance and perfume spice and a lovely complex slightly crunchy palate. An exciting and innovative wine.

As the name suggests, this is whole-bunch fermented. And it works a treat! Perfume is elevated, pretty with white pepper, rosy floral lift, some mezcal suggestions all set around red cherry, brambly raspberry and black olive sweet and savoury characters. The palate shimmies with silky texture that finds a faint rub of crushed rock tannin. There's snake hips to the wine as it finishes lithe, herbal and fresh. Compelling for its individual take on shiraz, or shall we say syrah here? Let's.

Mike Bennie
Published 16 May 2024

VINEYARD

Fruit sourced from our 41 year old 12 hectare Dry Grown Vineyard. Our old vines are not irrigated; something quite unusual in these days of mass commercial production. We prefer low-yielding wine crops with small berries. Although it limits our volume, having smaller fruit fosters an intensity of the flavour, with most of the colour and tannin of the grape being concentrated in or near the skin. The characteristically cool climate of the district ensures slow ripening of the grapes, which also allows for the development of rich flavour and quality grape juice. Grown on ancient gravely loams in Mount Barker, in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, an are renowned for excellence in cool climate viticulture. Our old vines are all cane pruned and yield 2 tonne per hectare with small bunch weights which add intensity of character and flavour. Galafrey harvest their grapes from mid March to late April depending on the season.

VINTAGE COMMENTS

After 2 years of lower volumes and drier years. This year was a reminder of what vintage is always like, fast pace as you battle the weather. Did you love the 2013 reds? Intense in flavour. Well, that is 2021. Big wines, big flavours and not that easy to juggle in the winery. The biggest difference this vintage was the rainfall in Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb with 121ml of rain. A wet February saw 51 ml fall for the month to start us of for vintage. January max temp was 39.5 degrees, February was 36.2, March was 37 degrees. With lots of beastly eastly drying winds in the first few weeks of the January.

WINEMAKING

Hand Picked fruit from our "young Shiraz block" which is 20 plus years old and dry grown. 100% Whole bunch fermented, and basket pressed. No fining needed. Minimal. I wanted to challenge the concept of what a cool climate whole bunch Shiraz could look like with this wine and essentially make Shiraz like our 100% whole bunch Pinot.