Winery & Vintage Info
Joseph Osborn was a successful racehorse owner and Footbolt was the pride of his stable. In 1912 he made the hard decision to sell his horses to purchase the d'Arenberg property.
Winter and Spring rains were quite good which meant vigour was high. October and November saw some cooler weather which made flowering and set spread out over a long period with an intense short heat wave in the middle of set reducing the crop significantly. A nice rain on the 1st of February set the vines up well and mild to cool, dry, weather prevailed. A few slightly warmer nights in the later part of ripening helped the last sugar push. Yields were down significantly, the lowest in memory, however, quality is exceptional. Some of the best wines seen for years. Great colour, fruit characters, flavours and length.
Small batches of grapes are crushed gently and then transferred to five tonne headed down open fermenters. These batches remain separate until final blending. Foot treading is undertaken two thirds of the way through fermentation.
The wine is then basket pressed and
then transferred to a mixture of new and used French oak barriques to complete fermentation. The barrel ferments are aged on lees, and there is no racking until final blending. This wine does not undertake fining or filtration prior to bottling.
