Winery & Vintage Info
The 2018 Pirathon Blue is an overachieving Barossa Valley Shiraz. This bold Barossa Shiraz has an inviting bouquet with aromas of ripe plum, Christmas cake, fruit compote and chocolate oak.
The full-bodied palate is rich and intense with an abundance of flavour and a deep colour. The length is very generous and completes this very enjoyable Barossa Shiraz.
Pirathon Blue Shiraz helps in the challenge of what to pick by being a consistent, high quality and traditional Barossa Shiraz that you can rely on. For that special occasion you simply do not need to think and worry about what to choose but can rely on this for a good quality, hearty Shiraz
The 2018 Barossa Valley growing season started off well, with winter rainfall around 10% higher than average ensuring soil profiles were full. Spring saw moderate rainfall with a warmer than average October and November allowing vine canopies to grow quickly. Weather conditions allowed for good flowering and fruit set which resulted in good bunch numbers.
January and early February were hot and dry in particular night time temperatures which were well above average causing the slowing down of ripening. After February 9 the season changed to an Indian Summer with dry conditions continuing but temperatures much more moderate with only two days reaching 35˚C. This led to perfect harvest conditions allowing each block to ripen slowly. Yields were down due to the small berry size, but this led to wines with amazing colour and flavour concentration.
The grapes were harvested from the low-yielding vineyards of traditional family growers in the north-western Barossa districts of Moppa, Belvidere & Koonunga. Each vineyard adds its own exclusive dimension to Pirathon Shiraz and combined they produce the ultimate blend.
Each vineyard was harvested at optimum maturity from March 2019 to February 2018. Following harvest, each individual lot of grapes was crushed into a separate open top fermenter. During fermentation, hand pump-overs gently extracted colour and flavour from the grapes. After 7-10 days on skins the fermented grapes were pressed with a traditional press. The wines were then filled to new and seasoned French, Hungarian and American oak hogsheads for maturation for 24 months before each lot of wine was racked from the barrel and carefully blended. The wine was bottled without fining, ensuring the true expression of the vineyards in the bottle. Winery Notes
