St Hugo Barossa Shiraz 2010
Colour: Deep crimson red with vibrant purple hue.
Bouquet: This complex shiraz is initially closed with a dense, brooding chocolate and cedary oak with a very subtle charry edge.
Palate: The taunt line, length and structure of ripe, fine tannin are what immediately strike the palate.
This tightly woven backbone is complemented by dense dark fruits, clove spice, savoury notes and well balanced oak that supports the wine without overwhelming it.
A classic wine from a great vintage.
Serving suggestion: It is ideally suited to flavoursome red meat, such as kangaroo.
Awards:
Gold: 2013 China Wine & Spirits Awards
Gold: 2013 RASQ Wine Show & Mediterranean Challenge - Toowoomba (Class 10)
Vintage Conditions
The best winter and early spring rains for five years lead to excellent vine growth, a very hot spell in November resulted in slightly lighter than average yields.
Mild and dry conditions through the rest of summer and early autumn provided ideal disease free ripening conditions.
Regular winemaker visits to the vineyards ensured that the fruit was harvested and the perfect time to meet the power and elegance requirements of the St Hugo Barossa Shiraz.
Winemaking
Varied winemaking techniques from traditional old open fermenters and modern sweeping arm fermenters were used to provide two distinctive wine style components for the blend.
The individual vineyard blocks were harvested by both hand and machine depending on vine age and were fully crushed separately to the fermenters.
Fermentation was controlled between 20 and 28’C with time on skins, ranging from 12 to 18 days, carefully monitored to allow the wine parcels to develop power without compromising their elegance or freshness.
Following pressing individual vineyard batches were matured separately in 80% French oak and 20% American oak, 65% of which was first use hogsheads, for up to 23 months.
The preference towards French oak was to target a tighter, more structural and elegant expression of Barossa Shiraz.
Each barrel was assessed for quality and appropriateness of wine style with only those best suited being utilised in the final blend.
The final wine is a blend of 15 vineyard blocks from a diverse spread of sub regions ranging from near Williamstown in the far south to Koonunga Hill in the far north of the Barossa.
The diversity of this fruit sourcing is to achieve the “power” from low yielding, mature Shiraz vines and to achieve “elegant” parcels from vineyards showing more restraint and structure.
Analysis
Alcohol: 14.8% alc/vol.
Total Acid: 7.1g/L
pH: 3.51