Kilikanoon Duke Reserve Grenache, Clare Valley

Description

Kilikanoon Duke Reserve Grenache is made with grapes sourced from old vine, dry farmed vines in the Clare Valley wine-growing region.

Kilikanoon wines was founded in 1997 by winemaker Kevin Mitchell when he purchased the property of the same name in the hamlet of Penwortham in South Australia’s picturesque Clare Valley. Kevin hails from a long line of wine grape growers but wanted to create his own wine brand rather than growing grapes for other producers. Kevin’s father Mort, was instrumental in Kevin’s wine career and had been planting and tending to Kilikanoon’s Golden Hillside suite of vineyards including the famed Mort’s Block, for over 40 years. The first wines to be released in 1997 were four single vineyard wines each from Kevin and Mort’s vineyards. These were the ‘Oracle’ Shiraz, ‘Prodigal’ Grenache, ‘Blocks Road’ Cabernet and ‘Mort’s Block’ Watervale Riesling. Traditional winemaking techniques are employed to produce hand-crafted wines with the unequivocal essence of Kilikanoon. Parcels and barrels are kept separate until blending in order to achieve regional and varietal definition in each wine.

Kilikanoon Duke Reserve Grenache is 100% Grenache carefully blended from two single Grenache vineyards in Watervale, aged 72 and 78 years respectively. Both vineyards dry farmed, hand pruned and hand harvested. Both vineyards loam over limestone soil profiles have contributed greatly to the wine’s chemistry, polished tannins and cellaring potential. From each hand-picked parcel arriving at the winery, to the small open topped fermenters that were used, to the basket pressing to three to six-year-old seasoned French oak hogsheads, traditional vilification processes have been followed, hardly changed over many generations of winemaking. Some extended skin contact and bottling the final cuvee, both unfined and unfiltered, has maximised the wines true potential.