Full generous fruit in this perfect example of a Barossa Shiraz
This wine is intense crimson in colour, with a youthful purple hue. On the nose, it has lifted aromas of ripe blackberries, blueberries, spicy pepper notes and Christmas pudding-like spices. Generous, mouth-filling sweet blackberries, raspberries and plums are pronounced on the palate, with sweet spice. It has firm, but fine, tannins and dark chocolate nuances continue onto the lengthy palate.
This is an exciting new venture called Dandelion Vineyards, where the apporach is remarkably simple and sees Elena Brooks making wine from a suite of beautiful old vineyards identified by Carl Lindner and Brad Rey across that blessed curve that runs from the Barossa, up through the Eden Valley and Adelaide Hills and down into McLaren Vale.'
Named after Barossa's lifelong champion of old vines, Carl Lindner, the grapes for this Shiraz come from an old vine vineyard in the Barossa where the vines are over a 100-years-old, many on their original rootstock. Throughout their vineyards they encourage the humble dandelion amongst the vines as they suppress winter weeds and provide mulch in summer.
Whole bunches were hand harvested, gently crushed and naturally fermented in open fermenters for eight days. The cap was hand plunged twice a day before the fruit was carefully pressed off the skins using a basket press into a mix of new and previously filled French oak barrique to finish fermentation. After 18 months maturation and a racking in the same oak, the wine was bottled without filtration or fining, to capture the essence of the vines.
Ribs, spicy sausages and pretty much anything on the BBQ mate!
International Wine Challenge 2023, Silver
