Pure Sangiovese - soft cherry and dusty tannins 

Scored 94 Points by James Suckling. Read the review.

Planted in 1998, this is one of the older Sangiovese plantings in the area. The block is tucked in-between the Saciacarello and Cabernet in our Vivian vineyard, on heavier dark clay over limestone. The denser clay soil is important to build body into a lower alcohol red wine.

We have been making wine from this block for nine years and it remains one of our favourites to work with. Generally we see flavour ripeness at around 12 baume, with lots of acidity and fresh tannins. The final wine has an alcohol content of 12.5%. 

Time on skins is around 3 weeks, with a mix of pump overs and hand plunging. Maturation occurred in 2000L foudre for 15 months, followed by an additional six months in stainless steel. The wine was bottled with 60ppm total SO2 added and no fining or filtration. It has been bottle aged for 6 months before release in July 2025. 

WINEMAKING NOTES:

Vineyard: Vivian Vineyard, Watervale. Organically farmed

Planted: 1998

Soil type: Terra Rossa, red clay on limestone

Picking date: 15 April, 2023

Picking method: Hand harvested and sorted in vineyard

Processing: Destemed, retaining whole berries, no whole bunch

Fermentation: Natural ferment in open top steel fermenters, hand plunged twice daily

Time on skins: 2 weeks

Pressing: Free run and pressings combined

Settling: Settled off gross lees for 7 days 

Aging vessel: 2000 litre Slavonian Oak foudre for 15 months and steel for 6 months

Filtration / Fining: No

Alc / pH / TA / SO2: 12.5% / 3.32 / 7.2 / 22F, 50T

Production: 200 dozen