Vintage 2011: We had good winter rains after a few seasons of below average rainfall. This was a late season: budburst was approximately 2-3 weeks late, and harvest started similarly behind our standard season (we usually start picking Chardonnay in early/ mid February). This year we picked whites in late February/ early March. Unseasonal rains in March threw a spanner in the works somewhat, but luck and good management helped us dodge most of the bullets. Whites are terrific, as is the Cabernet Sauvignon and our best parcels of Shiraz are incredibly bright, balanced and reminiscent of our 1999 reds, which have incredible longevity. Potentially 2011 is a standout Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot year (we were still picking PV in late April). Overall this was a very long vintage with moderate yields which tested Joch’s nerves a little more than usual.
Winemaking: We made the Puritan in a standard red winemaking fashion; we picked the grapes when they were flavour ripe – at least we got them in before the heavens opened. Then we crushed them, fermented them in a mixture of open and static fermenters, settled the wine and once through ‘malo’ (malolactic fermentation), we bottled it. Then we departed from standard red winemaking procedure. Generally a McLaren Vale Shiraz would spend a period of time in oak barrels of one sort or another. We wanted to make a fresh, vibrant Spanish ‘Joven’ (youthful) style of Shiraz ready for opening and enjoying immediately, and so we bottled the wine without any time in oak, and with no added preservatives.

‘This preservative-free red fair bursts out of the glass: heaps of joyful blackfruit, but layers, too, of more complex flavour – garrigue (wild thyme, dried oregano) and game (rare seared venison, I think)’