Pimpernel GROUCH 2019

|Limited Release|

A sophisticated Rhône-style red, ‘Grouch’ is made with select parcels of Shiraz fruit from our west facing block. Ideal ripening conditions in 2019 allowed us to carefully and selectively hand-harvest our close-planted Shiraz vines over the course of several weeks. As a style of Shiraz, ‘Grouch’ represents grapes harvested in later passes of the block and co-fermented with a small amount of Marsanne. Like the 2017 release, this wine is highly reminiscent of the great appellation of Hermitage: powerful, complex and elegantly structured, finely balanced and lingering.

Colour: Purple

Aroma: This wine has an alluring and distinctive perfume, combining dense forest fruits, green cardamom, soft peppercorn, hazelnut, cedar, subtle orange blossom and hints of sweet herbs. The intriguing and complex layers in this vibrant young wine invite you to taste it, and assess whether the fruit and high-floral intensity holds true to taste.

Palate: This wine offers superb concentration throughout the palate, delivered with elegance and restraint. Seamless layers of dark fruit and florals are accented with tea chest, aniseed, dark chocolate, coffee bean and mixed peppercorn, which gently taper to a lingering and complex finish. Incredibly well-balanced for such a young wine, the velvety tannins and natural acidity are approachable now (after decanting), but would support improvement for another 10-years or more.

Closure: Diam

Select bunches of close-planted, single-clone Shiraz were sourced from our west-facing block and co-fermented with Marsanne from our “Rhône Block”. The Marsanne (5-6%) was crushed and its stalks retained before the Shiraz was destemmed and crushed over-the-top. This single vat was inoculated with cultured yeast. Once fermentation was complete, the must was basket-pressed and the wine was transferred by gravity to barrel. The wine was matured in one-year old and older French oak barriques for 18 months, and racked twice before bottling. The 2019 Grouch was bottled without fining or filtration (DIAM closure).