Description
"Wirra Wirra sources fruit from owned vineyards and outstanding McLaren Vale growers. The blend of individual vineyard and sub-regional characteristics is the key to the resulting style. Fruit for this wine was sourced in half from our own organic and biodynamic Sandhill vineyard and half from a Blewitt Springs vineyard on Whitings Road, with plantings from the 1960’s on both sites. Low in vigour, producing modest yields of intense fruit, planted on sandy loam over clay and deep Maslins/Blewitt sands.
Parcels from each vineyard were picked and fermented separately as small batches in twotonne open fermenters to maintain the distinct vineyard character of each. Several ferments included a small whole bunch component. Each batch was tasted daily to determine the level of hand plunging and maceration required during fermentation. At the desired level of tannin and fruit extraction, each ferment was basket pressed with winemakers making a press cut to capture the finest tannins. Pressed wines were each transferred to a tailored selection of French oak barriques and puncheons in which they completed malolactic fermentation. Following MLF and several times thereafter, individual wines were racked and returned. At the end of this program, select barrels from the most outstanding vineyard parcels were blended and filtered with a single pass before going to bottle. The final blend comprised approximately one third new oak, the balance coming from largely two and three-year-old barriques and puncheons." - Winemaker Note
“I’ve tasted some exceptional examples of this wine, which honours Wirra’s founder Robert Strangways Wigley, but I haven’t tasted one any better. Okay, the vintage was outstanding, but it’s been expertly crafted using largely tried and tested winemaking which means getting your hands into the work. The intensity and concentration of the fruit have allowed 30% new French oak contribution. So, it’s both structured and supple with a palate of driving intensity and length.” - 97 Points Winepilot - Ray Jordan
“All French oak (30% new). It’s a fine year in the region, and certainly at this address, with refinement a hallmark across the range. There’s plummy depth, blue and black berries, sour cherry, scrubby and briary notes, iodine, leather, licorice root and a briny black olive note. Oak is on show but still meshes in well, the fruit fulsome but not swooning, making a concise statement but yielding the floor to grape and soil, a fine coil of tannins pulling through a long, savoury finish." - 95 Points Halliday Wine Companion, Marcus Ellis
