Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard 2017 Cabernet Shiraz

The Cabernet Sauvignon was hand harvested from the Whalebone Vineyard and delivered at night to the Tapanappa Winery in the Piccadilly Valley.

The Shiraz was hand harvested from the Shining Rock Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz were made separately in the following way.

The grapes were destemmed, lightly roller crushed and chilled to 5C on the way to 0.85 tonne fermenting tubs. The crushed must was cold soaked on skins for 3 days before the fermentation was initiated. After fermentation began the tubs were hand plunged daily, fully immersing the skins in the fermenting juice. The fermentation lasted for 11 days after which the wine was left on skins for a 7-day maceration under inert gas cover.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz wines were separately gently pressed away from the skins and immediately gravitated to French oak barriques, 60% new and 40% single use, to undergo malo-lactic fermentation. At the end of malo-lactic fermentation the wines were racked off gross lees and returned to barrique for a further 18 months of maturation.

In December 2018 the wines were clear racked from the barriques and blended, 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and 16% Shiraz. The finished wine was bottled in February 2019.

The post bottling analysis of Tapanappa 2017 Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Shiraz is