This is the first crop from our newly planted Barbera vines on our Razorback Road vineyard in the cool southern Adelaide Hills. The deeply coloured fruit was clean, ripe and in great condition at harvest. Following hand picking 10% of the grapes were loaded in to an open fermenter as whole bunches, the rest gently de-stemmed on top with a lot of whole berries. Following 2 days of cold soaking on skins the fermentation commenced and the skins were gently plunged to extract colour and flavour from the skins. Following fermentation the wine was pressed to combination of French oak (55% of the final blend, 10% new oak and 45% old oak) and a small stainless steel tank(45%). It then aged for 10 months on light lees in the combination of tank and barrel. The oak portion softened the tannins in the wine with the tank portion retaining a lot of bright fruit and vibrancy in the final blend. 92 pts - Wine Pilot - Reviewed by Shanteh Wale 90 pts - Campbell Mattinson
