Winery & Vintage Info
Clare Valley Shiraz is recognised for the purity of its fruit. Although the wines certainly offer power and tannic structure, there’s freshness and elegance too due largely to the elevation of the region at 400-500m above sea level. Higher elevation preserves acidity and, in many ways, simply makes it easier to produce more interesting Shiraz.
Good rainfall in early winter and proceeding well timed rain events in November and December had the vines in great shape heading into 2008 vintage. A cooler than normal summer provided excellent conditions for ripening and flavour development in the Shiraz, which was picked earlier than normal in February. Good yields and intense ripe flavours are the hallmark of the vintage.
The fruit for the Mitchell McNicol Shiraz 2009 wine is selected during vintage from individual parcels of Shiraz that show some distinctive characters suited to ageing. Largely whole bunch fermented with natural yeasts, it is aged in tight grained 500 litre French oak barrels for two years in our humidified cellar before being estate bottled, then aged in bottle for a further six years prior to release.
