Shiraz 2013
Tasting Notes
I tried to crowd source the tasting note for this wine, taking a bottle up to our new office which has been built just behind cellar door. We christened the office (before we moved into it) by having a wonderful 3 course luncheon for everyone who works here. Our chef for the day was vineyard, winery and cellar door doyen, Ian Adam, and what a feast he cooked up for us. Confit duck, boeuf bourguignon followed by a selection of excellent cheeses with little chocolate tarts. Here are some comments from the lunchers: ‘Do we have to go back to work?’ ‘How long did you marinade the beef for?’ and ‘Baggy not wash up’. Oh dear. I’ll do it then. The 2013 Bosworth Shiraz is as we intended it to be; balanced, ripe and delicious with red and black fruits and a hint of chocolate, a little bit of spice and finishing with great length and lovely tannins.
Vintage
We had good winter rains then warm summer conditions which brought about an early harvest. We had a few hot-cool-hot-cool periods which made it a little trickier to decide when to pick, but Joch reckons he got it right in the end.
Winemaking
We aim to please with our Bosworth Shiraz. Our objective is to make a well-balanced, delicious, medium-bodied wine with strong regional characters and to this end we keep winemaking techniques simple, and traditional. We pick the grapes on flavour and sugar ripeness, then crush them and send the ‘must’ to open fermenters. During fermentation we pump the juice over the ‘cap’ of skins 3 times a day, using big hoses. The next gen of Bosworths (Celia now 10 and Peggy, 8) has started helping with this job, although I have yet to confirm losses from vintage 2015 caused by aiming the hoses at each other . Pump overs help obtain maximum flavour and colour from the grapes. The wine finishes fermenting in barrel; we use a combination of new and old French and American oak. We also blend a small percentage of cordon cut, vine dried Shiraz to the wine prior to bottling. It really is that simple.
Reviews
Lisa Perrotti-Brown eRobertParker.com # 220 August 2015
deep garnet-purple, the 2013 Shiraz opens to notes of blackberries, black cherries, licorice and cinnamon stick with hints of charcoal. full-bodied and nicely structured, the palate has a good core supported by fine-grained tannins and plenty of freshness. it finishes long.
91 points
Ray Jordan in the West Australian's Top 100 Red Wines 23rd July 2015
A great producer from McLaren Vale concentrating on developing organic vineyards. This is dense and concentrated, with typically lush fruit. Soft and supple with a neat core of fine tannins and oak. Great colour and flavour.
93 points
The Wine Front July 15th 2015 Campbell Mattison
This is good gear. Fresh, deep enough, lively and satisfying. Blackberry, saturated plum, liquorice and oak-spice. tastes good all the way along the line.
93 points
Nick Stock's McLaren Vale Report #2 on www.jamessuckling.com
Very attractive purity and unabashed fruit emphasis here, this is a wine that really delivers on the pleasure factor. Loaded with delicious raspberry, blueberry, red plum and gently spicy complexity, supple slinky tannins, made to smash down. Drink now.
91 points
Halliday Wine magazine Feb March 2016
'Organically grown, traditionally vinified' says the back label helpfully. Well, it needs no explanation, because it's ultra-typical of McLaren Vale; medium to full-bodied, laden with fresh plum and blackberry fruits and the usual coast of dark chocolate and ample, but soft tannins. Good vintage, good wine, that is ultra-reliable.
94 points
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Vineyards: 'The Hill', Braden's and Chanticleer
Picking Date: 21st, 25th, 27th, 28th of February and the 1st and 14th March 2013
Alc/Vol: 14.5%
Bottling Date: 23rd July 2014