Tasting notes from the winery - Paxton Quandong Farm Shiraz 2018

Quandong Farm Shiraz is a single vineyard wine that aims to highlight the intensity and brightness of fruit grown using biodynamic techniques. Our farming practices are designed to produce wines of intensity, but also with layers of texture, flavour and interest for the consumer. We think this wine exhibits these characteristics and provides both concentration and flavour and a certain delicacy, rather than simple raw power.

VARIETY: Shiraz

100%: Organic | Biodynamic

REGION: McLaren Vale

VINEYARD: Quandong Farm

COLOUR: Vibrant crimson red with purple hues

AROMA: A perfumed lift of raspberry, wild cherry, black olive with a hint of floral notes and violets balanced with a delicate dusting of cinnamon and vanillin spice. French oak influence is sophisticated and contributes without being overwhelming.

PALATE: Medium bodied wine with plum, blueberry and cherry fruit characters. The mid-palate has a velvety generosity. Lightly rounded silky tannins offer great length and deliver a smooth velvety finish.

CELLARING: This wine can be enjoyed young, however, careful cellaring for 5–20 years will be rewarded

WINEMAKING & VINTAGE

VINTAGE: 2018 Growing season had very good winter rainfall allowing the vineyards to reach saturation point. A very dry spring encouraged healthy foliage growth and controlled the vines vigor well. We experienced one of the driest summers in 30 odd years; this meant a great concentration of flavours and intensity of fruit especially Shiraz and Grenache. The whites reached fruit ripeness with low acidity, therefore, producing a very bright and vibrant flavour profile. A warmer than usual autumn (Indian summer) kept disease pressure low and helped natural malolactic fermentation. All and all, a very strong 2018 vintage with fantastic red wines maturing in barrel and vibrant white’s in bottle.

VINIFICATION: The grapes were handpicked and selector harvested at optimum flavour and sugar equilibrium. 40% of the harvest was used as whole bunches while the remainder was delicately destemmed and fermented using 100% indigenous (wild) yeast. The small-batch ferments were carefully plunged and pumped over for 14 days to extract colour, flavour and tannin structure. The ferments were pressed to new and mature French oak barriques, where they were nurtured for 12 months prior to blending and bottling.

ALCOHOL: 14.0%
PH: 3.53
TA: 6.3g/L
TOTAL SO2: 70ppm
WINEMAKER: Richard Freebairn

(SKU: PX_QUA_18)