2021 Hay Shed Hill Vineyard Series Shiraz Tempranillo 6 Pack

The vintage of 2021 is a bit of a blur in the memory with constant decisions made on the fly at all hours
of the day given the unusual weather conditions across Margaret River.
 

It was a great start to the season with the first really wet winter for several years and therefore good soil moisture entering spring and summer. This is even more important for ‘dry grown’ (unirrigated) vineyards such as Hay Shed Hill. There were positive signs at budburst with potentially better crop levels than the last two years.
 

Spring was mild and the first whites varieties harvested in the first week of February. In this middle to late part of February and throughout March we experienced multiple episodes of rain, some of these falls being heavy. This sort of weather is rare in a Margaret River summer requiring harvest plans to be constantly reviewed and updated. Given the conditions I am thrilled with the result, all whites and rosés were pristine and clean, perhaps a little lighter in body than many years but wonderfully fresh and pure in character.
 

When we got to reds in March and throughout April the challenges were greater. The requirement for full ripe fruit flavours and depth of body in red wine means the grapes need to be left on the vine longer therefore with increased risk. But we were protected by the wine gods and got all the Hay Shed Hill reds off the vine before the season broke with a vengeance with heavy mid-April rainfall. It was a close thing. Cabernet and related varieties are bright in colour with good richness and maturity of tannin. I think it will be a  classic year more closely aligned with Margaret River wines of the early and mid-90s as opposed to the bigger wines of the early part of the century. And I think that is a good thing. Michael Kerrigan, winemaker.
 

WINEMAKING: Both Shiraz and Tempranillo were de-stemmed and fermented separately in open vessels with extensive pump over cap management to aid colour and flavour extraction as well as optimize the tannin development. The wines were pressed off skins and matured in French oak barriques, approximately one third new oak with the balance one and two year old. After 15 months in barrel the wines were blended according to taste

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