The fruit for this wine came from the Rosemary Hill vineyard at Traprock, technically it’s just outside the Granite Belt GI but the fruit is used by so many Granite Belt wineries I consider it Granite Belt. Grab a bottle of this and when you visit the Granite Belt go to some wineries that have a PV and ask them where their fruit came from, you’ll be surprised how may say Duncan Ferrier’s Rosemary Hill vineyard.
Collect some of these and do some side by side comparisons, you’ll notice the difference that different winemaking styles add to the finished product. Later question the winemakers concerned about the differences you noticed, this can be a very informative exercise.
This Petit Verdot (PV) wine is radiating a very warm bright reflective presence, it does look lovely and inviting in the glass. Deeply coloured as you expect from PV it’s a lustrous combination of dark plums, with red and purple spectrum additions. Quite boosted wafts of blue, black and purple fruits bound from the glass so that you have to wait just a little while to recalibrate and then you notice some violets, cedary oak and spice. There is no prevarication by the eager PV fruit weight on the palate it is quite unequivocal in it’s substantial expression of black cherries and dark plums, some blueberry juice sluicing over an almost mulberry surface and the entire combination of the fruits is most flavoursome and succulent as it builds towards a full bodied presence but is a little shy at emerging from upper medium weight. The acid is an enlivening line of underlying deliciousness and the expected PV tannins are a little different, they are subtle and softer than expected, very finely structured but in no way introverted. The palatal length is long, the minerals are there, and black pepper traces itself in a late fretwork from after the mid palate in an entwining flavoursome affair with all the aspects of this wines personality. You can be confident that this wine will not be intimidated by any weighty meal!
Tasted: Friday 18th September, 2020 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $45
Suggested Drinking Window: now to 2028
Winemaker: Dave Cush
Visit Website
