Wolf Blass Sapphire Label Lyndoch Shiraz 2016 - In Bond

**Available for delivery week commencing 15th May**

Stuart McCloskey “2016 was a great vintage and this shows all the hallmarks. What a bouquet – wow! Coal, graphite, cooling metal, red and blackcurrant, blueberry pastille, crème de mûre, sweet spice, sage – wonderfully exotic. What a start – faultless, in a word. The palate is suave - velvet-like. The layers of flavours sit more with red-berried fruits. Out of the three – this one has more grace along with sophistication. There’s more tension and acidity. The tannins are slender, neat and tidy. Ultimately, this comes across more grown-up and requires a touch more concentration. My favourite of the three and comes with a huge stamp of approval. Drink now to 2030+. Decant for a few hours. Served using Zalto Bordeaux glassware.”

Wolf Blass launched the first collection of Sapphire labelled sub-regional Barossa Shiraz wines from the excellent 2012 vintage. These sub-regional Shiraz each represents a critical marker along their traditional source route.  It lay in a straight line through the centre of the valley from Lyndoch in the south, right through the heart at Dorrien and north to St John’s, then following a sweeping eastern arc over the far side of the winery to Moculta in the northern reaches of Eden Valley.

The winemaking for all three Shiraz follows the same path in order best to tease out the sub-regional differences.  Harvested at optimum maturity, fruit from individual blocks is crushed separately and fermented in small open-top fermenters. A mix of plunging and gentle pumping over is used to optimise flavour, colour and tannin extraction. The wines are left on skins until dry to lengthen tannins and enhance palate line and finish. Each is matured in 60-75% seasoned and 25%-40% new French oak barrels for 18 months.   In Australia, the wines retail for around €90 each.

In the far south of the Barossa Valley, Lyndoch features the region’s lowest altitude, with the God’s Hill and Lyndoch Valley vineyards from which this wine is sourced, lying on some of the district’s higher peaks at 250 to 300m. Framed by slopes of Barossa Ironstone, the soils show multiple complexities, ranging from red-brown earths to alluvial sediments and fine sands overlying ancient micaceous schists, siltstones, calcitites and quartzites.