Grown under a certified organic programme (BioGro #5124) on our Estate. This was the fifth vintage made entirely on the Estate.

A mild and quite dry winter led up to a long cool spring. Vineyards were slow to spring to life as soil temperatures remained cold and it was generally cloudy and dull. Around mid-December, the sun came out and it got really hot. Flowering was a little later than usual, but by harvest, the grapes had caught up physiologically with higher-than-usual sugars. Such was the quality that we reserved a small portion of the Abel clone to bottle separately.

Hand harvested; 100% destemmed without crushing into open top fermenters, wild ferment helped along only by gentle hand plunging. This was followed by a long slow post-fermentation maceration. Maturation took place in a selection of quality tight-grained French oak barriques (mainly Allier and Tronçaise), none new, for 18 months.
Bottled unfined and unfiltered. Contains no additions and no added sulphites. Bottled under screw cap in light-weight glass.