Levantine Hill Optumes Shiraz 2018

Vintage 2018

Varietal blend 100% Shiraz

Harvest date(s) 12, 15, 17, 21 & 29 March 2018

Bottling date 14th February 2020

Oak treatment 100% matured in French oak (26% new)

Alcohol content 13.0%

Preservative(s) Sulphur dioxide (220)

Ageing potential 15+ years

Winemaking

Five individual parcels were hand-picked over two and a half weeks from specifically selected Yarra Valley vineyards. All fruit was hand-sorted and destemmed or crushed to small open vats. Stalks were added back judiciously to select parcels for additional aroma, complexity and sweep of tannin on the finish. Natural fermentation was allowed to initiate prior to inoculation with a specific varietally-enhancing yeast strain. Vats were
hand-plunged once per day during fermentation for gentle extraction and integration of tannin. Cuvaison length ranged from 3 to 4 weeks on skins.

Winemaker’s notes
The 2018 vintage provided ideal conditions and a lengthy growing season to follow-up our inaugural Optume 2017 release. Grapes were sourced from select premium sites located across the Yarra Valley with the express intention of creating a classic cool-climate Shiraz of exceptional regional character and typicity.
This assemblage of five individual sites combines their intrinsic strengths and expressions to deliver the optimum, a complete and superlative wine, greater than the sum of its parts.

Marrying density with finesse and restraint, this perfumed, brooding and refined Shiraz opens with an intensity of white pepper and red fruits. The complex nose slowly evolves to offer a mélange of cloves, rosemary, star anise, bay leaf, blood orange, porcini mushroom, chicory and char. The palate delivers a graceful presence pushing through to a slow-building resonance of flavour and tannin. A core of black fruits is wound tight and integrated so that no one element stands above the others.

This wine is suitable for vegans.

Decanting as a young wine is highly recommended.