Sanguine Estate Inception Shiraz 750mL (Case of 6)

Sanguine Estate Inception Shiraz 750mL

Vintage Overview

Quite an incredible season and very similar to the 2012 vintage that has produced trophy winning wines.  We recall in March of 2012 beautiful green paddocks (normally golden colour) and full dams for our first ever Music Festival now fast forward to the 2017 Sanguine Estate Music Festival held in February and it was exactly the same (including a full moon – well nearly full moon).

During 2017 it rained on a fortnightly basis due to the Indian Ocean constantly producing thick cloud bands that travelled from WA dumping large volumes of rain and cooling the centre of Australia taking away the usual heatwaves in January and February. We didn’t get many 40-degree days and when we did, it was usually followed by a cold front.

We went into harvest with the vines in “extremely” good health and very little crop thinning was needed due to the large healthy canopies.  With record yields (up 20% to 30% on our biggest harvest) combined with the cooler conditions it was a very very long harvest with picking finishing in May.  So, for the Shiraz wines, Mark has lots of very different batches to have fun blending with.

Winemaking

We utilize traditional winemaking practices such as small fermentation tanks, natural fermentation (i.e. no yeast additions) and gravity feeding. Whilst this can be quite labour intensive, we believe it ensures the preservation of natural fruit flavours and the Heathcote terrior character. As with all varieties produced at Sanguine Estate, the grapes were destemmed, lightly crushed and then naturally fermented with wild indigenous yeasts in small open fermenters. The wine is then transferred via gravity (to avoid pump shock) to predominantly French oak barriques (approximately 10% new) and left to mature for approximately 18 months.