Savitar is one of the great Shirazes from McLaren Vale, made with grapes grown on the Lopresti Vineyard's Chinese Block, located at the south end of McLaren Vale, about four kilometres east of the coastal town of Port Willunga. The vines struggle here, producing low yields of fruit with tiny berries which are full of black fruit flavours with dried herb, black olives and an earthy structure of dark smokiness, making this a power packed wine. 

It's named after a mythological dragon like creature, in homage to this wine's bold flavours and powerful length. It's an impressive wine for now and will undoubtedly age for the long haul - think a decade at least. 

The winemaking

Grapes for Savitar Shiraz are selected by hand from the Lopresti Vineyard in McLaren Vale, a site where they struggle and deliver in small volumes. This is regarded as outstanding raw material. They are fermented and the wine pressed before being transferred to oak barrels where it remains on light lees for 18 months before blending. 

Commercial description

The late Greg Trott saw many of his unusual dreams realised at Wirra Wirra. Yet one vision eluded him - to build a medieval siege machine, or trebuchet. Why? To use as a catapult to bomb neighbouring wineries with bottles of wine of course. This wine is part of a range, the RGT collection which remembers the pioneering spirit of Richard Gregory Trott.

Colour - Rich mulberry with plum-purple at the edge.

Bouquet - Lovely fresh plum and raspberries with notes of cinnamon, cocoa, clove, cardamom, nutmeg and dried ginger. A warm, vibrant and inviting nose. 

Palate - A delicious offering of blueberries, raspberries and plums are layered with patisserie-like notes of baking pastry, vanilla bean, butter biscuit and spice. The palate is generous with f lavour and supplies an ample measure of tannin that is smooth and fine, with mouth coating persistence. 

Vinification Fruit was gently crushed and destemmed en route to fermenter. Early temperatures were maintained at 20-22 degrees, rising to 25-28 degrees at peak of ferment. In general, ferments were pumped over two to four times daily to assist flavour and colour extraction, as well as spreading heat through the cap and body of the ferment. Nearing completion and having achieved the desired flavour and tannin extraction, pump-overs were reduced to once or twice daily to keep the cap moist. Close to dryness, wine was drained from the fermenter and the remaining skins were pressed via tank or basket press. Wines completed their secondary malolactic fermentation in tank then filled to oak with barrel selection and maturation times tailored to each parcel – those showing a more powerful structure receiving a longer maturation time in oak before blending.

Oak Maturation - Approximately 70% French and 30% American. A combination of new and seasoned oak is used, blending to about 20% new oak in the final wine.

Drink - Drink now to 2030 Food Match Eggplant involtini  

Family owned Leeuwin Estate is one of the five founding wineries of the now famous Margaret River district of Western Australia.

 In 1972, legendary Napa Valley winemaker, Robert Mondavi, identified the future site of the Leeuwin vineyard as being ideal for the production of premium wine and provided early mentorship to Denis and Tricia Horgan in the transformation of their cattle farm into Leeuwin Estate. Enjoying its first commercial vintage in 1979, Leeuwin was thrust into the international spotlight when Decanter Magazine gave its highest recommendation to the 1981 “Art Series” Chardonnay. 

This is Shiraz is part of the same art series, from Margaret River in Wetern Australia. This is classic Shiraz with an abundance of bursting blackcurrants, boysenberries and mulberries balanced by sweet, toasted spices.

A silky red with light spicy aromas and lovely depth of flavour with layers of red and dark fruit on the palate due to the inclusion of four different grapes in the blend of this wine. Three French grapes lead the way with Shiraz 56%, Grenache 17% and Cinsault 17%, all supported here by the dark deep flavours of Portugal's Tinta Barocca which contributes 10%. 

A portion of foot stomping helps to extract colour and juice prior to fermentation.
Ageing is in older, larger 4000 litre oak for 16 months.

From the winery...
The 2014 AA Badenhorst is our ninth release of this appellation wine. The wine has the potential to age very gracefully for the next decade or so. The tannins are prominent and well integrated and refreshing as a number of the parcels were picked quite early. The aromas are more upfront than normal with complex notes of pepper, liquorice, perfume and black cherries. The palate entry is quite dense with lavender and dark berry fruit. The finish is dry with well spread tannins ending with savoury and currant flavours.

Savitar is one of the great Shirazes from McLaren Vale, made with grapes grown on the Lopresti Vineyard's Chinese Block, located at the south end of McLaren Vale, about four kilometres east of the coastal town of Port Willunga. The vines struggle here, producing low yields of fruit with tiny berries which are full of black fruit flavours with dried herb, black olives and an earthy structure of dark smokiness, making this a power packed wine. 

It's named after a mythological dragon like creature, in homage to this wine's bold flavours and powerful length. It's an impressive wine for now and will undoubtedly age for the long haul - think a decade at least. 

The winemaking

Grapes for Savitar Shiraz are selected by hand from the Lopresti Vineyard in McLaren Vale, a site where they struggle and deliver in small volumes. This is regarded as outstanding raw material. They are fermented and the wine pressed before being transferred to oak barrels where it remains on light lees for 18 months before blending. 

The older Barossa Valley vineyards typically yield fruit of concentrated flavour and soft, supple and velvety tannins that set them apart from the younger stuff. The Ebenezer block gives this wine its dark core and its muscle, with the fruit from Williamstown providing elegance, fragrance and spice. There’s plenty of blackberry, black satsuma plum, black cherry and cassis with great intensity and length.

Pure Eden is a single site wine, made from an Eden Valley vineyard planted by Charles Angas in the 1890s. Later owned by the Shiltons 1911 -1926; Meakins 1926-1929; Roeslers 1929-1961; Andretzkes 1961-2011 and now the Lindner family. This wine is a reward of these guardians’ efforts for more than one hundred years.

An alluring bouquet of red and blue fruits leap from the glass with savoury herbs and hints of black olive, cedar, earthiness and white pepper. A medium to full-bodied wine with juicy Satsuma plum and raspberry fruits with plenty of velvety tannins adding structure and texture to the wine. Sweet and briary spices balance the juicy fruit with a subtle cedar note carrying through to the finish.

-100% Shiraz from Flaxman Valley, Eden Valley,
-24 months in 47% new French oak and 53% seasoned French oak

Produced with selected small parcels of old, dry grown Barossa Shiraz from nearly 30 of the Barossa’s finest grape growing families. The vineyards are situated in different sub regions throughout the Barossa, which adds to the complexity and depth of flavours. The wine is hand made using equipment from the turn of the last century, then aged in American and French oak for two years. All this contributes to the objective to make the very highest quality, traditional, soft, deep coloured, earthy Australian red wine which will bottle age.

Lovely mid-depth colour with purple tints. Lifted red fruit and earthy notes on the nose. Ripe fruit and low oak impact on the palate, with the new oak providing a slight vanillin sweetness that compliments the berry fruit. The ripe fruit tannins are complemented by the natural fruit acidity, resulting in a very long finish for the wine. A stylistically typical medium-bodied Hunter Valley Shiraz from a very good year.

Winery Notes: 

This Shiraz which comes from the Paisley estate vineyard, is deep red with purple hues. The nose has wonderful lift of raspberry fruits, floral notes, choc mint and a herbal, menthol note. The medium to full bodied palate has juicy red fruits, blackcurrant, earthy, savoury notes and black olives. The oak has introduced a cedary, roasted meat character. Soft silky tannins define the mid palate and complement the vibrant and juicy fruit. It finishes long with berry fruit, fine tannins and cedary oak. Drink young while it is vibrant and fresh but will age in the medium term for up to ten years.

Concentrated mulberries, boynesberries and black pastille fruits dominate the nose with subtle fennel frond nuances. Subtle oak complexities of black cardamom, nutmeg and lifted violets are well positioned in the background.

The palate is rich and layered with dark cherries, plums and raspberries. Integrated structural dark chocolate tannins scroll to the back palate with subtle hints of anise, which is balanced with an elegant and buoyant acid line.

Vineyards and vines: small parcels of selected fruit are sourced from various vineyards on our farm Kalmoesfontein, the Swartland area and the greater Paardeberg mountain.

Grapes: Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Verdelho, Grenache Gris, Clairette Blanche, Semillon and Palomino.

Vinification: The vinification is quite straight-forward when you are working with fantastic grapes from old vineyards – whole-bunch pressing of cool grapes, this juice is then transferred to old casks; very old casks for fermentation and maturation. Some of the juices are blended during this time which what we like as the components really integrate then. A small percentage of the grapes are picked a bit earlier for some acidity but the rest are picked at what we reckon is a good ripeness and flavour.

Maturation: We only use old 1200l foudres and one 3000l foudre for the fermentation and maturation of 15 months. After this the wines are racked and blended in a single concrete tank with all their unsulfured lees and left for another 6 – 8 months before bottling.

Analysis: Alcohol 13.4 vol% Residual Sugar 2.6 g/l pH 3.45 Total Acidity (Tartaric) 5.56 g/l Total sulphur 80 ppm

The final makeup of the blend varies slightly each year. This is because of the vagaries of the vintage. We feel that Chenin Blanc is best suited to be the heart of the blend and that is why it forms the biggest portion of the blend. The aromas are very complex and change considerably in the glass. Perfume, spice, tea, stone fruit and citrus blossoms are some of the notes that can be detected. In the mouth the texture and ripeness and gentle tannins result in a wine that has incredible length and complex flavour profile. The wine also has wonderful fruit volume characterised by stone fruit and mineral flavours.

The finish is long and has slight phenolic edges supporting the fruit through the entire length of the wine.

Only 6400 bottles produced