SHIRAZ, CEMENT FERMENTED, BRIGHT AND JUICY

The Barossa has a love affair with hearty and rich red wines, with Shiraz being the jewel in the crown. Growers have tried other varieties over time that have similar hallmarks of sweetness, richness and ripeness, with Zinfandel being a leading candidate. So, a few decades back you’d find a few Zinfandel plantings popping up in vineyards to see if people would have a thirst for something new. It’s great to try new things, but sometimes you just have to realise tastes are not going to change – classics become classics for a reason.

What to do with these Zinfandel vines then - graft them to Shiraz of course, a layer of new vines on a mature root base. The vineyard I source this from is in my favourite Barossa sub-region, Greenock, where the soils have a layering of red clays over a limestone base. The fruit from this section of the vineyard is aromatic and bright, without the cloying sweetness that some Shiraz and Zinfandels can have!

So layers is a theme with this vineyard story, it would make sense to call this Layers Shiraz. Unfortunately, this was trademarked so I used the Thesaurus and Stratum was the next best thing.

TECHNICAL STUFF

VINEYARD:

• Greenock, Barossa Valley

• Red clay over limestone and schist

WINEMAKING:

• Picked in the cool of the evening

• Destemmed and wild fermented in cement tanks

• Pressed and aged in cement tank on lees for 10 months

• Bottled unfined and unfiltered