Colour

bright ruby with a light purply/watermelon coloured hue

Nose

Lifted aromas of pomegranate, red cherries, roses and turkish delight mingle with exotic foresty notes of cinnamon and bracken.

Palate

On the palate it becomes plain how young this wine is. Tannins and acid are tightly wound together and the finish is firm and grippy. There are also citrus peel notes and other darker fruits present, but the wine needs time to unfurl and soften.

Our winemaking varies only subtly from year to year with fermentation and MLF always allowed to proceed naturally. The 2018 vintage saw no whole bunches in the ferments. We loved the skin tannins and the flavours where only just inside our target window so any flirtation with greener tannins and flavours seemed pointless. As usual the fermentations where completed in small tanks (1 tonne or less) with hand working of the cap. I love the tactile aspect of seeing and touching the skins each day and monitoring their breakdown. The ferments showed a focussed and tight wine emerging so most batches where off skins at the end of ferment to lock in the juicer components of the wine, though the colour was light. About a third of the wine remained on skins for about 3 weeks post ferment and this cemented a fine tannin spine and a spoonful more colour. By the time the wine was pressed we were deep in autumn so and efficient MLF was needed and so the wine was kept together in tank till MLF completed. The wine was then racked clean to predominantly 3rd and 4th use barrels for 14 months elevage. Finally, the wine was bottled without fining or filtration in late 2019.