Our stoic 1894-planted Command vineyard is in the heart of the Barossa Valley, in Nuriootpa. At the western end the vines in alluvial soils border the Para River, and clay content rises in the soils as the vines head east towards our Cellar Door. Command is the sum of several small batch picks to ensure we capture every part of the vineyard at optimum flavour concentration. We hand harvested this fruit over three weeks, allowing for the ripening process across the different soil compositions. The 2017 vintage saw us finish later than average, on 12 April. The long and gentle ripening season, peppered with some showers after a winter flush with rain, ensured for intense fruit concentration in the finished wine, with a depth of seamless tannin yet elegance only achieved in great years. Cool open fermentation using a combination of heading boards, for complete cap submersion, and gentle pump overs to achieve gentle extraction, ensured retention of fresh fruit characters while allowing for optimum tannin extraction. - Jules Ashmead & Brock Harrison