Wakefield Jaraman Shiraz Clare Valley / McLaren Vale

Description

Wakefield Jaraman Shiraz is a multi-region red wine blend from Wakefield wines, the 2019 vintage is a blend of 59% Clare Valley and 41% McLaren Vale Shiraz. The wine demonstrates the luscious elegance of Clare Valley fruit which marries superbly with the slightly peppery fruit from McLaren Vale.

Wakefield Wines is located in the heart of the Clare Valley. The company was founded by wine merchant Bill Taylor Senior in 1969 with the purchase of 178 hectares of vineyards near the Wakefield River in Auburn. Bill Taylor carefully chose the site for its red brown loam over limestone soils ( this is known as “terra rossa”) and the cool climate of the Clare valley. In that same year, 1969, the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines were planted. Since 2000 the company has been run by Managing Director and third generation Winemaker Mitchell Taylor, the grandson of Bill Taylor Senior.

Today Wakefield Estate is one of the most highly esteemed cool climate producers in Australia. Almost all of the grapes are sourced from 500 hectares of family-owned vineyards in the winery which makes it one of the largest single estate plantings in Australia. They do source some fruit from trusted growers in other regions, Coonawarra, for example. The family’s home estate and vineyards are situated in South Australia’s beautiful Clare Valley, in the sub-region of Auburn and stretch to another sub-region border, Watervale. As well as the estate range, they also produce the Jaraman and St Andrew’s ranges. The Wakefield Jaraman range of wines are named after the aboriginal word for seahorse. Fossilised remains of seahorses have been found on the estate which confirms that the area had in fact once been the bed of an ancient inland sea.

The grapes for the Wakefield Jaraman Shiraz are gently destemmed  and transferred to small static stainless steel fermenters. Half of the grapes were cold soaked at 6 degree C for 5 days to deliver increased fruit expression. After pressing and fermentation using Shiraz-specific yeast, the wine is then pressed into American oak barrels (30% 1 year old and 70% 2 and 3 year old) for malolactic fermentation (MLF). Post MLF, the wine was transferred back to barrel for maturation before being fined, filtered and bottled.