Best of Vintage 2014
Tasting Notes
On the nose there are dark red fruits with cedar characters over black fruit(blackberry and mulberry). Fresh clean and bright palate with seriously good fruit. Creamy oak characters are in there too. Terrific length, persistence and presence. A super wine made for the long haul but by decanting the Best of Vintage, the impatient wine person will be able to enjoy a bottle of this wine now, while storing the rest for later.
Vintage
Vintage 2014 was a season of extremes for us all in McLaren Vale. We had great winter rains which gave us a full soil moisture profile in time for a dry and windy spring. They don’t call it windy Willunga for nothing. We had a series of very hot days in January, followed by about 45mm of rain over a 48 period in early February which slowed the ripening process right down. We had picked all of our white grapes prior to the rain ‘event’ and so we had a decent break between whites and reds, like the good old days. There was no splitting of any of the grapes left on the vine after the rain, mercifully, either. Joch’s analysis of 2014 is that it was a gentleman’s vintage – everything came in slowly and in order, not like the mad rush of 2013. Every vintage is different; truism of our time, and of our industry.
Winemaking
Best of Vintage is exactly that – the best wine from the best barrels of red wine as decreed by Joch and Nairn as they prepare to make the regular Bosworth Shiraz and Cabernet. Or in this case, the Shiraz and Petit Verdot, because the 2014 BOV is a blend of Shiraz (90%) and Petit Verdot (10%). Whatever blend of red wines looks and tastes best gets left to mature for a further 6 months in barrel approximately, before blending and bottling.
Both Shiraz and Petit Verdot are made according to the standard Bosworth red wine making protocols, that is they were individually fermented in open vessels and then finished off ferment in barrel. The Petit Verdot was slightly different in that it spent a further period of time on skins. Then into bottle and time to mature there before release.
Reviews
James Halliday's 2018 Wine Companion
'The continuing dearth of cabernet shiraz (or shiraz cabernet) is puzzling, if only because of the synergy that comes of the union. This brightly coloured, medium-bodied blend is at once juicy and textured, with blackberry and dark cherry fruit each contributing, long with balanced oak and ripe tannins. Great stuff.
James Halliday
Published 01 August 2017
95 points
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Vineyards: Grange/ Hill, Ding's and Bradens Shiraz, and the Hill Petit Verdot
Picking Date: 7th March, 17th March and 21st March; Petit Verdot 7th April 2014
Alc/Vol: 14.5%
Bottling Date: 8th December 2015