2018 Stevens Road Graciano

Graciano (100%)

2018

Margaret River

The growing season began with good, even budburst after average winter rainfall. The mild spring which followed ensured that there was good flowering and fruit set. A moderate start to summer, with no heat extremes, set up the harvest well with white varieties offering great flavour intensity and bright acidity. There was an incredible display of Marri blossom (tagged as a once in a generation ‘mega-blossom’) which meant bird pressure was practically nonexistent whilst the whites were harvested. A minor rain event occurred in mid-March, which was followed by fine warm conditions which prevailed right through to middle of April allowing all red varieties to achieve great flavour and tannin ripeness. In summary 2018 will be remembered as an outstanding vintage! 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 2018.

Deep red with garnet hues.

Intriguing aromas of dark morello cherries and blood plums foiled by a lovely rustic thread of graphite, charcuterie, lavender and five-spice.

The palate is medium bodied offering fleshy red fruits balanced by plenty of gamey, spicy characters. Delightfully rustic and full of old-world savoury personality this unique wine finishes with lingering supple peaty tannins and balanced acidity.

13.5%

750ml

3.44

The fruit was crushed, destemmed and chilled followed by a cold soak for 4 days at 5-10°C, extracting colour structure without the 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. We think that this is our best Graciano to date!