Tasting Notes from the winery for Kalleske Old Vine Grenache 2019

2019 Old Vine Grenache is dark purple in colour. The aromatics are incredible, so dynamic, ever engaging.  There’s characters of musk, raspberry, lavender, violet and sarsaparilla. The palate is rich and full-bodied with deep varietal flavours of juicy black cherry and clove with bountiful soft tannins giving a layered structure.  A hallmark of immense fruit purity showcases the strength of its varietal, regional and old vine origin.  The wine is constantly evolving and a further stratum is evident from seasoned barrel maturation.  A very lengthy finish is a fitting completion to this smooth and generous wine.  This distinguished Grenache drinks well now but is ideally suited for serious cellaring.   

Kalleske Old Vine Grenache is made from a low yielding, single vineyard planted in 1935 on our Kalleske estate. Situated on the outskirts of Greenock in the NorthWestern Barossa Valley, the Kalleske’s have been farming this property for over 150 years and the vineyard is now tended by sixth and seventh generation family members. Following picking these dry-grown Grenache grapes were fermented in open fermenters and then gently pressed in our estate winery. The wine was matured in seasoned oak hogsheads giving a complex Grenache wine, which will benefit from cellaring.

GROWING SEASON

Quality from 2019 is stunning.  It was a warm and extremely dry growing season with rainfall down significantly (39%), making it one of the driest years in the past century.  Summer was 3 degrees warmer than average.  Yields were impacted by the dry season, leading to smaller berries and bunches.  Importantly quality is brilliant producing richly flavoured, intense wines.

VINEYARD

Old Vine Grenache is made from a single vineyard planted in 1935 as bush vines on the Kalleske farm. The vineyard soil is shallow sand with light clay subsoil and the grapes are entirely dry-grown ensuring intensely flavoured fruit.

WINEMAKING

Following hand picking on April 8th, grapes were destemmed into an open-top fermenter. The must was fermented using native yeast and the skins were entirely submerged for gentle flavour and colour extraction for the 8 day fermentation. The must was then traditionally pressed and filled to barrel. The wine was matured in seasoned American and French oak hogsheads for fifteen months prior to bottling.

(SKU: KA_OVG_19)