2016 Breaking Ground Shiraz Mourvedre

NEW RELEASE

Wine Profile

Our Breaking Ground Range celebrates our focus on innovation pioneering alternative wines and wine styles.

These two varieties are interplanted with about 85% of the vines Shiraz and the other 15% Mourvedre. It is the only Shiraz Mourvedre made in the Hunter. At an average yield of one tonne per acre the fruit for this wine was intensely concentrated in flavour. The Mourvedre tends to ripen 2 weeks after the Shiraz resulting in a wine that tends to be a riper style than usual for the Hunter. The grapes for this wine were picked from a single block off the old Saxonvale vineyard growing on the red volcanic soil of the Fordwich Sill.

Region Broke Fordwich, Hunter Valley

Vineyard Saxonvale Vineyard

Tasting Notes  

Savoury characters from the Shiraz and perfumed notes from the Mourvedre combine with integrated tannins to produce a medium -full bodied, balanced wine.

Colour  Deep ruby

Nose  Blackcurrant, cherry, blackberry and dusty earth

Palate A rich palate of black forest fruits, chocolate and licorice carries through to a finish of warming spice and firm tannins. 

Food Match Braised meats, Charcoal grilled steaks

Cellaring Enjoy now or cellar over the next ten years

Winemakers Notes 

The 2016 vintage was a cooler vintage but a good vintage for reds in the Hunter, making more elegant and spicy reds. The grapes were picked together from the same block and co-fermented under cool conditions using cultured aromatic yeast.  After fermentation the wine was placed in new and used French oak barriques where it matured for 20 months prior to bottling. The intense tannins of the Mourvedre help lift the spicy notes of the Shiraz in the wine to provide a medium - full bodied structure accentuated coupled with vanillin notes from the oak.

Alcohol - 14.5 %               pH- 3.56                  TA – 6.7 g/l