2018 Shiraz Art Series

The 2018 vintage strikes again—it is driven, pure and concentrated. It can't be underestimated for its ability to provide a perfectly ripe platform for great wine, both red and white, in Margaret River. The fruit for the 2018 Art Series Shiraz was wholly sourced from the estate Peppy Park vineyard, 17 kilometers south of the main estate vineyard in Boodjidup. The fruit went over a sorting table, followed by a five-day cold soak. There is up to 20% whole bunch in this cuvée (none in 2017 or 2019), and it is composed of 100% WA Clone. The wine was matured for 18 months in 600-liter demi-muids (Rhone and a Bordelais coopers). "Our priority is opening up the canopies to obtain proper solarization of bunches," said Lovett.

Tasted from a 10-cl sample bottle. 93% Shiraz, 6% Malbec, 1% Viognier. Machine-picked and fermented in open- and closed-top fermenters, 20% whole bunch, daily pumpover and plunging. After primary fermentation, the wine was run to new (20%), one- and two-year-old barrels for malo. After six months it was blended and aged in French barrels for another 12 months, medium and medium-plus toast. Fined with egg white. Bottled 10–12 December 2019. Not yet released. TA 7.17 g/l, pH 3.32. Dark-blue fruit on the nose, smudged with kohl and sketching charcoal. They suggest five spice, and I can get that pretty much exactly. Lots of black-olive tapenade bitterness and meatiness building into game and char and eucalypt and iron. Delicate violet florals dance over the rain-wet-wrought-iron clench of the finish. Tannins are both rugged and polished – cowboy movie star. A hint of Moroccan leather dipped in midnight-blue ink. Long and dramatic but elegant. (TC)