Winery & Vintage Info
The Adelaide Hills was long considered too cool to ripen Shiraz. By the early 2000s, though, the potential for outstanding Shiraz from the right sites in the Adelaide Hills was compelling, and the first Shaw + Smith Shiraz was made in the 2002 vintage. Since then, Shiraz in the Hills has gone from strength to strength, its hallmarks being fragrance, intensity, and medium bodied elegance.
The growing season in 2020 had two key features. Cool and windy weather at flowering gave us super-low yields, and a lovely and cool February meant great flavour and acidity.
It was a rollercoaster ride for the vineyard team in 2020, as we were blessed lots of special weather – a dash of hail, a touch of frost, some hotness and coldness. In the end we picked healthy grapes of excellent quality, just not very many of them.
It was a game won or lost at the selection table. After hand sorting, we de-stemmed about 60%, and left 40% as whole bunches. Gentle, slow ferments gave us fine tannins, before the wines were tucked into a mix of small and larger barrels
for 14 months. Winery Notes
