Producer
Lethbridge Wines is a boutique producer specializing in highly terroir- driven wines from some of the best vineyards in Geelong, chosen after an exhaustive search in the mid-1990s. With total quantity capped at 5,000 cases, the focus is on quality and individuality, and environmental sustainability is also key: Lethbridge’s own vineyard is farmed biodynamically, and the winery design is minimal-impact, requiring no heating or cooling. Lethbridge is garnering critical acclaim and a cult following in Australia, and Berkmann is honoured to be their first importer worldwide.
Vineyard
The fruit for this wine was sourced from vines over thirty-five years old at Mount Duneed, one of the first vineyards to be planted as Geelong winemaking re-emerged in the 1960s. The vines yielded just one tonne per acre (about 17hl/ha).
Winery
The grapes were destemmed and given eight days’ pre-fermentation maceration until the wild yeast fermentation began. This took place over seven days in 500-litre open vats, with daily plunging; temperatures peaked at 30oC. The wine was then pressed straight to barrel (with twenty-five percent new oak) for malolactic and eleven months’ ageing. The wine was bottled unfiltered.
Taste
Aromatic and finely etched, this Shiraz combines vivid scents of blackberry, pepper, elderberry and violets with a firm, muscular structure. An appetising dryness offsets the rich ripe fruit. Thrilling, dynamic Victoria Shiraz.
Press
“Vivid colour; a potent, unequivocally full-bodied shiraz, reflecting its place (in Geelong) and its maker to equal degrees; there is an abundance of black fruits, licorice and bramble, welded together by powerful tannins.” – 95 points, James Halliday Australian Wine Companion, September 2015