VINEYARD
The fruit for this wine was entirely estate grown at Johnston’s Oakbankvineyard, nestled on elevated slopes about 400 metres above sea level.It was carefully monitored by Winemaker Geoff Johnston and picked underideal conditions to ensure that optimum fruit flavour was captured at harvest.

WINEMAKING
This wine was made entirely from fruit grown at Johnston’s Oakbank (Wenzel)vineyard and was carefully monitored by winemaker, Geoff Johnston.

Geoff was particularly anxious to keep the vines working late in the season toenable the fruit to develop on the vine for as long as possible. This allowed the full development of ripe flavours in the cherry and plum spectrum andprevented the spice notes from dominating.

After crushing, cultured yeast, SO2and tartaric acid was added as the fruit waspumped to the fermentation tank. Each day for seven days the fermentationwas pumped over for approximately one hour and cooled when necessary. This phase of extraction of flavour, colour and tannin gives the wine its allimportant concentration, or weight. At about one baumé the fermenting winewas run off and gently pressed. Once fermentation was complete, the wine wasracked and centrifuged and any additions were made, prior to transfer into oakbarriques. During the first twelve months the wine completed Malolactic(secondary bacterial) fermentation, then was sulphured to protect it fromoxidation and spoilage. It was matured for approximately two years in oakbarriques prior to bottling.

TASTING
The 2004 Shiraz nose shows lifted intense ripe blackberry fruits with spice andpepper, integrated with sweet French and American oak. The palate has rich andgenerous blackberry fruits following 30 months of barrel maturation. A balancedfinish with long palate, flavour and fine tannins. The 2004 Shiraz will furtherdevelop with careful cellaring for at least 10 years.

This wine was made entirely from fruit grown at Johnston’s Oakbank (Wenzel) vineyard and was carefully monitored by winemaker, Geoff Johnston.
Geoff was particularly anxious to keep the vines working late in the season to enable the fruit to develop on the vine for as long as possible. This allowed
the full development of ripe flavours in the cherry and plum spectrum and prevented the spice notes from dominating.

After crushing, cultured yeast, SO2 and tartaric acid was added as the fruit was pumped to the fermentation tank. Each day for seven days the fermentation was pumped over for approximately one hour and cooled when necessary.

This phase of extraction of flavour, colour and tannin gives the wine its all important concentration, or weight. At about one baumé the fermenting wine was run off and gently pressed. Once fermentation was complete, the wine was racked and centrifuged and any additions were made, prior to transfer into oak barriques.

During the first twelve months the wine completed Malolactic (secondary bacterial) fermentation, then was sulphured to protect it from oxidation and spoilage. It was matured for approximately two years in oak barriques prior to bottling.

TASTING
The 2003 Shiraz nose shows lifted intense ripe blackberry fruits with spice and pepper, integrated with sweet French and American oak. The palate has rich and generous blackberry fruits following 30 months of barrel maturation. This Shiraz wine finishes, balanced, with long palate length, flavour and fine tannins. The 2003 Shiraz will further develop with careful cellaring for at least 10 years.

This wine was made entirely from fruit grown at Johnston's Oakbank (Wenzel) vineyard and was carefully monitored by winemaker, Geoff Johnston.

Geoff was particularly anxious to keep the vines working late in the season to enable the fruit to develop on the vine for as long as possible. This allowed the full development of ripe flavours in the cherry and plum spectrum and prevented the spice notes from dominating.

After crushing, cultured yeast, SO2 and tartaric acid was added as the fruit was pumped to the fermentation tank. Each day for seven days the fermentation was pumped over for approximately one hour and cooled when necessary. This phase of extraction of flavour, colour and tannin gives the wine its all important concentration, or weight. At about one baumé the fermenting wine was run off and gently pressed. Once fermentation was complete, the wine was racked and centrifuged and any additions were made, prior to transfer into oak barriques. During the first twelve months the wine completed Malolactic (secondary bacterial) fermentation, then was sulphured to protect it from oxidation and spoilage. It was matured for approximately two years in oak barriques prior to bottling.

TASTING
The 2002 Shiraz has an intense, complex bouquet, exhibiting spice, white pepper and blackberry fruit enhanced by two years in new French and American oak barriques. The palate is full of rich, sweet, blackberry fruit with complexity and palate length balanced with fine tannin. This wine will benefit from careful cellaring for up to ten years.

This wine was made in small 2 tonne fermenters, and hand plunged to enhance fruit intensity and maximize fruit potential. Oak maturation was 50% new French and 50% 5 year old French oak.

TASTING
The 2001 has a very youthful colour and density. The bouqet is intense with blackberries,white pepper and spice, and gently enhanced with subtle vanilla oak. Blackberries flow on to the palate, with great intensity and length, and then are balanced with good acidity and natural tannin. Cellar potential 10/15 Years.