“Silence is of great value, some things are better left unsaid”
Variety: Shiraz
Region: Barossa Valley
Alc/Vol: 14.5%
Winemaker: John Harris
Colour: Deep dark black/red and violet.
Bouquet: Complex nose showing blackberry, raspberry and dark cherry with hints of plum, black olive and peppery spice.
Palate: Voluptuous, opulent and yet refined are the trademark of Silence is Golden. This vintage resulted in a wine that’s a stand out as it produced incredible fruit with a great level of fruit intensity at its core. Highly concentrated pure wine featuring alluring flavours of blackberry, plum, christmas cake and chocolate. The tannins are smooth and soft with the slightest touch of acidity and wonderfully integrated oak ensuring great intensity, length, and cellaring potential.
Winemaking: Sourced from two blocks in the Greenock region of the Barossa Valley, from vines aged up to 63 years. The 2023 vintage is another stand out vintage like 2022; the timing of picking was critical again as ripening was slow and later than usual (perhaps it’s the new normal) minimal summer rain, no major heat events all contributed to delayed picking, so we carefully watched and picked based on berry ripeness not just Baume. The Shiraz grapes were selected based on flavour profile to ensure consistency of style. The grapes were picked and delivered to the winery and gently worked through the de-stemmer before being transferred to an open fermenter with 20% whole berries. The juice is pumped over twice a day for seven days before draining and loading the basket press. The skins are then gently pressed for approximately 20 hours to retrieve more of the essence of the grape. After the wine has completed its malolactic ferment, it is matured in 25% new and 75% older French oak barrels for 18 months prior to bottling with minimal fining or filtration.
Cellaring: Allow it to breathe if drinking early. In its youth it will show wonderful fruit purity, but this wine is built to last and I expect to be drinking it over the next decade at a minimum.