Viticulture

The 2017 season was relatively warm and dry with prolonged periods of days where there was plenty of heat and light, but the season finished with bursts of cool weather and rain during the ripening period. Most of the Shiraz fruit was picked before the heavy Autumn rains that usually start in April in South Australia.

Winemaking

The final wine exhibits a deep red-brick colour and a hint of purple on the edge. There is a rush of red fruits and black pepper aromas on the nose. The palate is rich and ripe with sweet cherries, plums, black spice and a hint of liquorice.  The wine has some lovely soft tannins which are balanced with the fine acidity textured tannins and supported by the maturation of some of the wine in older French oak for up to 6 months. The wine is blend of Shiraz from throughout the warmer regions of South Australia as well as a smaller percentage from the Barossa Valley (2015 – 10%) wine region which is cooler but gives the wine the riper red fruit character.  The “Celebrations” Shiraz has been orchestrated to be a high quality every day drinking wine ready to drink now or will cellar well and reach its full potential in 2 to 5 years.