'Rock Hill' Shiraz
2008

This wine is easily approachable with aroma and flavour of cherry, blueberry, coconut and mixed spice. The extra fine tannins from a slow ferment and subtle American & French barrel maturation have contributed to this mid to full bodied Shiraz. Soft and silky in texture, round in structure & cellar worthy for those who so choose.

The Vintage

The 2008 vintage was a challenging one for some of the regions Shiraz. We were fortunate with the Rock Hill vineyard being constantly relieved from the 10 days of the unprecedented dry heat wave during mid March. The elevated Rock Hill receives cooling breezes generated from either gully winds from the Adelaide foothills or sea breezes upswept through the valley where Pedlers Creek meets the sea.

Vinification

Gently harvested in the cool of night, the grapes were received at the winery at around 14.0 Baume and immediately crushed.
The grapes & juice were then put into small batch open fermenters, where they slowly converted from grape juice to quality wine. Along the way its ferment cap was hand plunged twice a day, then pumped over 3 times each day in the last 4 days, to complete a 12 day ‘on skins’ ferment. One quarter of the new wine finished its ferment in 3 year old French & American oak barrels.
A combination of 10% new and 3 to 4 year old American oak hogsheads were used for 18 month’s barrel maturation, along with 5% new French oak contributing a noticeable effect. The individual barrels were then assessed and the finished wine blended before bottling. In April 2010, the wine was bottled and packaged in premium claret bottles, and closured with high quality natural cork. To retain its natural body and texture this wine has not been fined or filtered and a small amount of harmless, natural sediment may form over time.

Technical

Alcohol by volume; 14.5% v/v
pH; 3.50
Titratable Acid; 6.30 g/L
Varieties; 100% Shiraz
Geographical Indication; McLaren Vale, South Australia

Awards and Accolades

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	2008 Rock Hill Shiraz, Silver Medal Vienna International Wine Challenge 2011 View Editorial  |  Visit Web Reference EDITORIAL: AWC Vienna is the world’s largest wine valuation and the only international wine valuation in Austria which is officially approved by the European Union for the purpose of granting awards for wines! The panel of experts of awc vienna 2011 consists of national and international oenologists, wine experts, sommeliers, gastronomers, wine traders and journalits. The prerequisite for admission as member of the panel is the attestation of an official wine tasting exam according to the Austrian Wine Law or to an equivalent international sensorical experience.
	2008 'Rock Hill' Shiraz, 93 Points Australian Wine Showcase Magazine Visit Web Reference EDITORIAL:
	2008 'Rock Hill' Shiraz, Silver Medal 2011 San Francisco International Wine Competition View Editorial  |  Visit Web Reference EDITORIAL: The San Francisco International Wine Competition, the largest, most influential international wine competition in America, is judged by a prestigious panel of nationally recognized wine experts. Judging is based on a blind, consensual procedure, ensuring competitive integrity as it remains the nation's most respected wine competition
	2008 'Rock Hill' Shiraz, Silver Medal 2011 San Diego International Wine Competition View Editorial  |  Visit Web Reference EDITORIAL: SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION STAFF Director Robert Whitley, Creators Syndicate & Reuters & Wine Review Online Robert is a syndicated wine columnist with more than 20 years of experience as a wine journalist. He writes the weekly Wine Talk column for the Creators Syndicate as well as a monthly Vine Talk column for the Reuters news service. Robert also is Publisher of Wine Review Online, an online wine publication that attracts more than one million visitors annualy and nearly 500,000 page views per month. Chief Judge Michael Franz, Editor, Wine Review Online Michael is the Editor of the online wine publication Wine Review Online. He also contributes a monthly column and weekly reviews. Michael wrote a bi-weekly wine column for the Washington Post for a number of years before accepting the position at Wine Review Online. He also contributes to a number of national and international publications and has judged wine competitions the world over. Assistant Director Rich Cook, California Grapevine Rich is a regular on the California Grapevine tasting panel and creator of Wine Wise Web, a wine blog.
	2008 Rock Hill Shiraz, Trophy nomination George Mackey Memorial Trophy 2010 View Editorial  |  Visit Web Reference EDITORIAL: The George Mackey Memorial Trophy is presented annually by the AWBC to the most outstanding export wine of the year. Initial nomination is made by AWBC wine inspectors, who set aside around 200 wines out of approximately 18,000 during the routine inspection of every exported Australian wine. Mr Sam Tolley, one of the Corporation's executives, has said that this is one of the world’s biggest wine competitions – and one of the toughest to win. No other wine competition has over 18,000 potential entrants and, unlike other competitions, only one award is given.

Availability

In Stock