Region | |
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Subregion | Australia > Western Australia > Margaret River |
Colour | Red |
Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Leeuwin Estate
Slow autumn ripening and 20% whole-bunch fruit has produced a gorgeously perfumed, elegantly structured Shiraz with savoury charcuterie undertones. Immersive, powdery tannins and gravelly, ironstone acidity lend impetus and animation to the palate-cleaving black berry, currant and bilberry fruit. Black pepper, clove, cardamon and five-spice notes linger on the youthfully taut, fresh finish. A terrific vintage for this hidden gem.
Drinking Window 2021 - 2030
Tasted from a 10-cl sample bottle. 93% Shiraz, 6% Malbec, 1% Viognier. Machine-picked and fermented in open- and closed-top fermenters, 20% whole bunch, daily pumpover and plunging. After primary fermentation, the wine was run to new (20%), one- and two-year-old barrels for malo. After six months it was blended and aged in French barrels for another 12 months, medium and medium-plus toast. Fined with egg white. Bottled 10–12 December 2019. Not yet released. TA 7.17 g/l, pH 3.32.
Dark-blue fruit on the nose, smudged with kohl and sketching charcoal. They suggest five spice, and I can get that pretty much exactly. Lots of black-olive tapenade bitterness and meatiness building into game and char and eucalypt and iron. Delicate violet florals dance over the rain-wet-wrought-iron clench of the finish. Tannins are both rugged and polished – cowboy movie star. A hint of Moroccan leather dipped in midnight-blue ink. Long and dramatic but elegant.