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Vintage Notes
In late 2002 Tapanappa assumed control of
the 27 year-old Koppamurra Vineyard
in Wrattonbully just north of Coonawarra.
The vineyard was renamed as the
Whalebone Vineyard.
The foliage of the old vines was retrained
into a vertical canopy and the crop level
was reduced to a meagre 3 tonnes/hectare.
The deep-rooted old vines of the
Whalebone Vineyard rely on the natural
rainfall and the moisture reserves in the
marly clay of the Terra Rossa soil and the
deep porous limestone upon which it is
formed.
In the 2003 vintage those reserves were
sorely tested as the first four months of the
growing season were nearly 20% hotter
than the long-term average. Then autumn
came early. The critical ripening months of
February, March and April were dry, sunny
and nearly 20% cooler than average.
The fruit ripened with deep colour and
the freshness of flavour and acid only
conferred by a long cool ripening period.
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Wrattonbully (Struan) has an average heat summation
for the growing season of 1468ºC days
compared to Coonawarra at 1414ºC days
and Pomerol in Bordeaux at 1447ºC days.
In 2003 the total 7-month growing season
heat summation at the Whalebone
Vineyard (Struan) was 1493ºC days and despite
the cool, attenuated finish to the season
there was plenty of heat to fully ripen
the fruit.
The Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) was hand
picked at the same time as the Shiraz
(20%) and Cabernet Franc (10%) in the
first week of April. The average sugar
level of the fruit was 24º Brix, the pH was
3.55 and the acid 7gpl as tartaric.
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Winemaking Notes
The hand picked grapes from the
Whalebone Vineyard were de-stemmed
and partially crushed (60% whole berries)
and chilled to 1 tonne fermenters. After a
cold soak of 3 days the native yeast of the
vineyards was added and the fermenters
were hand plunged twice daily, throughout
the two week fermentation. The fermenters
were sealed for a further week of skin
contact with the finished wine and then
pressed directly to new French oak barriques
to undergo malolactic fermentation on
full lees.
After malolactic, the wines were racked
every 6 months of their 20 month stay in
barriques. The final clear racking allowed
the components to be blended and the
wine was given a light egg white fining
before being bottled without filtration in
July 2005.
The in-bottle analysis of 2003 Tapanappa
Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Shiraz is;
Alcohol - 14.5% v/v
PH - 3.58
Total Acid - 5.3 gpl as tartaric
SO2 - 80 ppm
Volatile Acid - 0.48 gpl
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