Luddite Shiraz 2013
VEGAN FRIENDLY!
Appearance: Dark red and garnet hues. Nose: Spice driven red fruit with hints of licorice, cinnamon and toasty wood. Palate: Brooding dark fruit and spice. Rich, natural, sweet fruit core. Lingering finish of savoury spice and balanced tannin.
92 pts James Suckling
Mulberries, blackberry crumble, earth and spices such as cinnamon. Very sexy and polished on the palate, offering lots of fruit. There’s also a good structure and tension with tangy acidity and grippy tannins, which hold things in place. Drink now.
91 pts Tim Atkin MW 2017
People who love this wine would hate to see it change, and who am I to argue with such success? I wouldn’t mind a bit more freshness, but it’s a broad-chested, figgy, incense and iodine-scented red with lots of chocolatey tannins and a richly alcoholic finish. 2017-21.
90 pts Vinous/Neil Martin Aug 2018
The 2013 Shiraz was matured for two years in 95% French oak and 5% Hungarian oak, 20% new. It has a concentrated bouquet of black cherries and boysenberry jam; a touch of wilted violet petals emerges with time in the glass. The firm palate is medium-bodied with grippy, slightly edgy tannin, good backbone and hints of graphite toward the finish. Two or three years in bottle should soften the edges of this bold but enjoyable Shiraz.
4 ½ Stars 2018 Platter’s South African Wine Guide
Always bold & ripe (15% alcohol in 13) but gets the balance right. Dark fruit, leather, pepper & clove, voluptuous curves without losing any of its latent power, stature. But the decadence is there.
Bold but had the resultant spice of a cooler vintage. It was also the first time we had a proper crop from our young block. We fermented all these different clones in small batch open fermenters. The old block was fermented in stainless steel tanks with regular pump-overs. Fermentation temperatures were higher than normal due to a non-existent cooling plant (28°C). No skin contact was given after ferment and the wines were pressed into tank to undergo malolactic fermentation. After malolactic fermentation batches of wine showing promise were blended together and pumped into barrel. 30% new oak was used of which 95% of the barrels were French Oak and 5% Hungarian Oak. The rest being 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill. The wine remained in barrels for 24 months after which we blended all the different batches together to create the best possible wine which was then bottled.
