Oliverhill ‘Red Silk’ Shiraz 2017
Medium to full-bodied with plenty of youthful blueberry and blackberry aromatics and flavors on offer. This wine has a solid backbone of medium to firm tannins with well integrated, refreshing acidity and finishes with good length. Conspicuously absent is the slight menthol note that often accompanies McLaren Vale valley floor renditions of shiraz – what you’ll find in Stuart’s old vine shiraz is pure blueberry reduction, atop a luscious platform of mocha and ground coffee beans. THIS is textbook McLaren Vale Shiraz!
2014 – 91 pts Steve Tanzer
90 pts Wine Advocate
2013 – 91 pts James Suckling
90 pts Steve Tanzer
2012 – 91 pts Wine Advocate
The Oliverhill vineyard produces an average of 2.5 – 3 tons/acre. These vines are hand spur-pruned, and the harvest time is determined entirely by grape flavor. The fruit is destemmed and crushed into 3 ton open fermenters. The Shiraz is inoculated with Lalvin Syrah yeast. During ferment, hand plunging takes place four times a day or more. The wine is fermented to dryness on skins – for an average 12-14 days. It is then basket pressed, into tank, and left overnight to settle. From there it’s transferred to French (Sirugue, Nadalie and A.P. John) barrels, typically 1/3 new, 1/3 one-year old, and 1/3 two-year-old barriques. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel and the wine is then racked three times over 12-18 months. The wine is then coarse-filtered, lightly sulfured, and bottled. All processes take place on premise. Roughly 5000 cases are made of each vintage and all fruit is off their own vineyard.
