Yelland & Papps

The Wine

Deep opaque red/purple with aromas of lifted, fragrant plum and blackberry fruits with blueberry and cranberry high tones. Pure and fresh smelling with hints of fruitcake spice, mocha, dried apple, quince paste, ironstone, earth, licorice and judicious spicy oak, with just a perfumed flick of jasmine at the tail.

The supple fruit flows energetically onto the palate showing great texture with flavours of rich, ripe plum and blackberry fruits along with shades of mulberry and blueberries. The fruit-weight is medium-bodied on the palate showing hints of milk chocolate, fruitcake, deep-set spice, licorice, ironstone, walnut and lovely, spicy creamy oak that sits in line with the fruit characters with great balance. A vibrant seam of acidity and ripe, fine-grained tannins wrap the wine up as it glides across the back-palate with persistence of finish and impressive harmony and tension.

Drink now or cellar for 8-10 years.

The Winemaking

Fermented on skins in an open fermenter for 7 days and then gently basket pressed, this small parcel of wine was then transferred to new(25%) and old(75%)  American(75%) and French(25%) hogs heads for 20 months of maturing.

Once matured the wine was bottled unfiltered and then spent 6 months maturing in bottle in our warehouse prior to release.

Bottled – 23^rd November 2010

Alc – 14.9

pH – 3.49

The Vineyard

The grapes were grown on the out skirts of Greenock, home of some of the most extraordinary grapes. Vines were planted in the mid 1980’s in sandy loam topsoil over light clay.

Cropped at 1.2 tonnes per acre, the vineyard was harvested on March 17th when optimum flavours and balance were achieved in the grape.

Awards & Reviews

• 93 points - James Halliday - 2012 Australian Wine Companion
  The colour is deep, but has a hazy rim; from a single vineyard from the Greenock region notes for the generosity of its shiraz; while medium to full bodied, the wine has a certain softness to its black fruit profile, making it a drink now or later proposition. Almost dainty compared to Divine.
• 4.5 stars - Rod Brown - Red to Brown
• Bronze - 2011 Marananga wine show
• 2011 The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines
• Bronze - 2011 Royal Melbourne Wine Show
• 93 - Nick Stock - 2012 Good Wine Guide
• Julian Coldrey - Full Pour
  12 Jun 2011
  This has been open a good couple of days and is just starting to sing. There was something fuzzy about it on opening, the clarity of its fruit obscured by structural static. Much better now, though.
  
  On the nose, a spiced, clove-laced aroma of crushed blood plums and cedar, pine needles and marzipan. Opulent is going too far; mellifluous a better description for what is an easy, conversational aroma profile. I like the oak character in particular; it's a mixture of nougat and nuts with hints of dark spice. Despite being more accessible after a couple of days, this remains a rustic nose, roughed up with dark notes and graced with a character of fruit that's more tart-baked than freshly picked.
  
  The palate is generous and solidly structured, with a level of density that remains high right down the line. That said, it's not the most highly defined wine, flavours blurring into one another with pleasant casualness. So the overall impression is one of large scale ease, which is tremendously appealing if you set aside the sort of hard-edged detail that some wines pursue in the name of quality. No, this is old school Barossa, full of plum and fruit cake spice, well-balanced acid and soft tannins. The fruit may lack an ounce of freshness, but it's barely a mark on the drinkability here. A very good wine in its style.
  
  Yelland & Papps
  Price: $A32
  Closure: Stelvin
  Source: Sample