Oliverhill ‘Red Silk’ Shiraz 2019
“Deep, youthful violet. Expansive, spice accented black and blue fruit and floral scents, along with hints of vanilla and cola. In a plush, forward style, offering appealingly jammy cherry and boysenberry flavors that show good depth as well as energy. Smooth, slowly building tannins add shape to the long supple finish, which strongly echoes the blue fruit note.”
Josh Raynolds (Sept 2022)
91 points – Josh Raynolds, Vinous
The base to this wine is fruit from our 49-year-old Jimmy Section vineyard 20-30%. Since 2017 50% of fruit comes from our 20 acres `Nine Gums` vineyard. 25 years old East/West rows on rich Urrbrea soils, elevation 100m above sea level. Fruit from a small grower, also located on Seaview Rd, makes up the remainder around 20%. Grapes are machine picked, determined by flavour. Crush-destemmed into 3 & 5 Tonne open fermenters, hand plunging and pump overs 3 times a day. Fermented to dryness on skins, average 10-12 days. Malolactic fermentation and maturation in a combination of French & American 300L barrels, around 20% new, 12-18 months. Course filtered and bottled without fining agents.
The 2019 growing season experienced a lower-than-average rainfall. With the dry conditions, lack of summer rain, the vineyards relied on supplementary irrigation to get them through to harvest. Combined with some extreme high temperature days, both in late January and February, it was a challenge to keep the fruit in top condition. The result was vineyards with medium canopy`s carrying open bunches of fruit with less weight. The lower yields have resulted in wines with good intense flavour with fine tannins.
Drink now or cellar for 10 years +.
ALC% – 15.3
Total Acid – 6.98
PH – 3.58
RS – 2.7
