Did you pick before or after the heat? This was the question most commonly asked around South Australian wine areas in the 2008 post vintage period. A record 15 days straight over 35°c in mid March saw sugar levels skyrocket. Thankfully we had picked our last block on the first day of the heatwave, so saved ourselves much grief. The vintage was bookended by heat with the warmest New Years Eve on record as well. But.... the bit in between was lovely!! No rain, mild days and good medium crop levels stood the vintage in good stead as long as you finished early.

Deeply coloured. Spicy fragrant nose. Real depth and tightness. The wine was aged in predominantly French oak barriques of which 35% was new. This is a serious cellaring wine. Many Grenache based reds can be light hearted and fresh, and indeed this is a legitimate manifestation of one Grenache style, but our aim is to make classic dark wines with a mix of spice, liquorice and other complex flavours leavened by some sweeter talc like perfume that will evolve into a seductive long term style.

The normal Charles Melton melange of techniques: whole bunch fermentation, along with de-stemmed but uncrushed fruit. Cap management involves daily pumpovers throughout the fermentation. Due to the strength of the tannins we slightly shortened our skin contact time to avoid astringency, but the wines still developed deep lusturous.