We had a very wet winter (between June and September) and a cool wet spring, which tested the mettle of our in-house viticulturist/ vigneron, AKA Joch. As a result of these trying conditions, vintage started later than in previous years (we picked Chardonnay on the 15th February in #v2023) and we had much smaller volumes than in 2022 or 2021. We had a few warm days in January and February and picked the whites quite quickly, then about 10mm of rain in early March which settled the dust and stopped picking for a little while. Despite the smaller vintage, the quality of grapes was excellent across both red and white varieties.

Touriga traditionally is used in Portugal to make fantastic fortified wines.  When you pick Touriga early however, it makes a floral yet savoury, mid-weight wine.  We grafted Touriga onto Shiraz well over a decade ago and Joch now has a pretty good handle on the variety, both as the ingredient of a super fresh and bright table wine (Exile) and a delicious port.

Joch and co pick the Touriga early to capture the delicate florals, then crush and ferment the grapes in small open vessels. Once through fermentation we mature the Exile for a short time in bigger, older barrels and then bottle it early.

• 2023
• 2021
• 2020
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014