2020 Xanadu Cane Cut Viognier

Viognier (100%)

2020

Margaret River

Average Winter rainfall followed by a warm/dry Spring set up an early start to the growing season. Fruit set was variable, resulting in lower yields across most varieties. The warm Summer daytime temperatures combined with low yields saw harvest begin very early, at the end of January (one of our earliest ever) and all whites were harvested before the end of February. An incredible display of Marri blossom meant bird pressure was practically non-existent in the first half of vintage, and a short rain event after the white harvest offered some respite setting up the reds perfectly. Warm conditions continued throughout March, with all of the reds being harvested by the first week of April, our earliest ever harvest completion. In summary, 2020 will be remembered as an excellent vintage in Margaret River. Canes of Viognier vines from our Boodjidup Vineyard were cut when the fruit was at optimal flavour ripeness and the fruit was then allowed to dry on the trellis, increasing the concentration of flavours and sugars in the shrivelled berries. A month later the grapes were handpicked to ensure that only the best fruit was selected from the very low yielding vineyard for this opulent cane cut wine.

Straw yellow

The intense bouquet displays spicy tropical fruits, apricots and cumquat marmalade with hints of orange peel and toffee in the background.

The palate is sweet and opulent offering apricot nectar, lychee and mango. Lemon-honey characters combine with the exotic tropical fruits and persist through to a luscious, sweet finish balanced by zesty acidity.

13.0%

375ml

3.50

Fruit hand-picked on 26th March then crushed, destemmed, chilled and soaked on skins overnight. This ensured all of the extremely shrivelled berries could rehydrate (in the juice) allowing the natural sweetness and concentrated flavours of these raisined berries to be extracted. This was followed by pressing and cold settling the juice before fermentation, which was a long slow process at about 15°C in a small stainless-steel tank for nearly a month. The fermentation was halted at exactly the right balance of sweetness and alcohol by adding SO2, chilling and filtering the wine. The wine was stabilised immediately after the fermentation was stopped and bottled early to capture the exotic flavours resulting from the concentrating process of cutting the canes on fruit laden vines.