Notes from the Winery

Our fortified Shiraz VP is made from the vintage's last fermenter of fully ripened Shiraz fruit from the Mattschoss family vineyard, planted in 1945 in the Siegersdorf region of the Barossa Valley. It is then fortified with a 19 year old wood aged Brandy spirit. The VP fortifying is an end of vintage celebration and the ritual tends to draw many staff out of the woodwork to inhale some of the most enticing aromas imaginable. Making a fortified Shiraz is only done in exceptional seasons and perhaps only a handful of times in a decade. In 2015 we blended a smooth wood aged Brandy spirit with a specially selected parcel of rich, deeply flavoured Shiraz. When the spirit was added to ferment it immediately contributed to complexity and brought an aged oak character to the wine.