Farmers Leap The Brave Shiraz, Padthaway

Description

Farmers Leap The Brave Shiraz is a premium red wine from the Padthaway wine-growing region of Australia.

Farmers Leap Wines was established by third generation Padthaway farmers Scott Longbottom and Cheryl Merrett. They began planting vines in Padthaway in 1995 on the family property. Today there are plantings, mainly, of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot. To begin with most of the fruit was sold on to other wine producers but, as time has gone by, and with increased success of the Farmers Leap label, more and more fruit is destined for their own label. Today there are over 400 hectares of vineyards planted and farmed alongside the family’s sheep, cattle and onion crops.

The Padthaway wine-growing region is located in the inland centre of the Limestone Coast in South Australia some 155 miles to the south of Adelaide. The climate here is Mediterranean and the soils are rich, terra rossa over limestone (similar to Coonawarra to south). The region is probably best known for red wine production and Padthaway Shiraz has always been particularly well-regarded.

The Shiraz fruit for the Farmers Leap The Brave Shiraz comes from a single vineyard site with red clay
sitting atop a limestone base with an elevated topography providing fruit with excellent density and complexity. The wine was fermented on skins for 10 days and pressed at dryness before being transferred to barrel for a maturation of 22 months. The barrels used were 90% French and 10% American oak.