The March family are custodians to the unique and historic Heathvale Estate vineyard in the Eden Valley. First planted to vines in the late 1800’s, Trevor, Faye and their family have worked assiduously to replant the vineyard to Riesling, Shiraz, Cabernet, Sagrantino and young Tempranillo. The growing season in the Eden Valley is typified by warm days with very cold nights combined with long periods of sunshine – a climate very similar to the Ribera del Duero region of Spain where Tempranillo excels. We anticipate that Tempranillo will grow well and produce exceptional fruit in the Eden Valley.

Tempranillo was planted in 2014 and yielded 0.5 T of fruit in 2017. Fruit was hand – picked on March 12 and crushed / de-stemmed into two puncheons which had their heads removed for use as fermentation vessels. The must was cold soaked at 12 – 15°C with daily juice pump - overs for three days until fermentation commenced. The ferments were then allowed to warm up to a maximum of 30°C with pump – over and manual cap plunging three times daily to extract flavour, colour and tannins. After 10 days on skins, the wine was pressed, settled and racked to seasoned 300 and 80 litre French oak barrels where it completed malolactic fermentation. The wine was racked off lees, sulfured and returned to barrel for 20 months prior to final blending and bottling.

Production details
Vintage − 2017
Region − Eden Valley
Varieties − Tempranillo, 100%
Alcohol − 14.0 % v/v
Total Acidity − 5.9 g/L
pH − 3.57
Production − 34 dozen