Scarce Earth Braden's Single Vineyard Shiraz bottle image
Scarce Earth Braden's Single Vineyard Shiraz bottle image

Scarce Earth Braden’s Single Vineyard Shiraz 2016

Tasting Notes

Dark fruits, with spice – clove, a touch of smoke and licorice too. Lots of ground pepper and green olive with firm yet juicy tannins. A spicy, full and structured Shiraz.

We had a very dry spring leading up to vintage 2016 and it was windy, too. We expect windy conditions in Willunga, but this was pretty intense. October and December were both pretty warm, whereas November was mild. Very healthy crops were recorded across all varieties in McLaren Vale. We had a huge downpour at the end of January a few days before the whites were due to be picked; this kind of weather event tends to give Joch a sense of tightening around the left chest area, neck and sometimes down the arm. However this 50mm downpour succeeded in refreshing the vines, giving us a few more days before picking and bringing the lawns back from the brink. February was mild with cool nights and March provided pretty good picking conditions, give or take a few warm days.

Single Vineyard Shiraz

Our inspiration for bottling small volumes of Shiraz from single vineyards was the Scarce Earth program, which was a McLaren Vale initiative exploring and celebrating the geological climatic and soil diversity of the region. All wines come from a single block, a small plot of land with a unique flavour profile and personality. Braden’s This program has been mothballed for the time being.

Soils

The vineyard is mapped as Christie’s Beach formation, but is transitional to Bay of Biscay black cracking clays on the Ngaltinga formation. The Biscay soils are known as self-mulching soils that swells and shrinks according to moisture content. The soils crack in summer to a significant depth – ‘root pruning’ and in winter you will get stuck in a heartbeat if you aren’t in a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

 Winemaking

 The 2016 Braden’s Shiraz is made using grapes from our Braden’s Vineyard. It has been hand-made, hand bottled and is unfiltered. The wine was open fermented in small vessels then finished off ferment in a mixture of new (50%) and older fine French hogsheads.

Technical Details

Soil Type:          Bay of Biscay

Geology:           Christies Beach Formation, Quaternary period.

Elevation:          90 metres

Vine Age:          44 years

Vine clone:        Unknown, thought to be a Reynell selection

Alc/ Vol:           14.5%

Volume:            62 x 6 packs

Technical Details

Vineyards: Braden's

Picking Date: 13th and 17th April 2017

Alc/Vol: 14.5%

Bottling Date: 24th October 2018