2015 Stevens Road Graciano

Graciano (100%)

2015

Margaret River

A relatively mild, warm Winter resulted in an early budburst to kick-start the growing season. This was followed by some relatively wild Spring weather however with wet, windy conditions affecting fruit set and resulting in low yields across most varieties in the region. Beautiful, warm weather returned in Summer which saw flavour ripening accelerate quickly, bringing about our earliest vintage on record. A lack of Marri blossom leading up to and during harvest meant bird pressure was extreme, with netting absolutely vital this season. The early start to the vintage ensured all of the red varieties were able to be harvested at optimum maturity during the cool finish to the season. All of the fruit for this traditional Spanish variety is grown on our mature Stevens Road vineyard; the tiny block is only 0.6 Ha in size, and as such this is truly a limited release with only six barrels produced in 2015.

Deep red with garnet hues.

Intriguing, with aromas of blackberries, plums and dark Morello cherries shadowed by a lovely savoury thread of graphite, soy and five-spice in the background.

The palate is medium bodied offering fleshy red fruits, plenty of gamey, spicy characters and a touch of dark chocolate. Delightfully rustic and full of old world personality this quirky wine finishes with supple tannins and lingering savoury flavours.

13.5%

750ml

3.51

The fruit was crushed, destemmed and chilled followed by a cold soak for 4 days at 5-10°C, extracting colour structure without excessive tannins the thick Graciano skins have to offer. After warming, the must was inoculated with a selected yeast strain and fermented in the small open fermenters for 5 days before pressing at about 3 Baume and finishing fermentation and MLF in oak. No new oak was used in order to emphasize the rustic, savoury fruit characteristics; however the wine enjoyed a 14 month maturation period in the mainly one and two year old French oak barriques.