Torbreck The Laird Shiraz 2016

Mocha, darkchocolate-coated black cherries, the palate fullbodied and quietly massive… an impressive wine indeed. HUON HOOKE, The Real Review

The Laird (formerly Gnadenfrei) Vineyard was first planted in 1958 on a southwest facing slope in the tiny hamlet of Marananga in the Barossa Valley. Torbreck’s first harvest of Shiraz from this highly coveted plot came in 2005.
A combination of red and black clays with an ironstone base intermingled with gravel and quartz. The red and black soils produce two distinctly different wines that complement each other when blended. The Eastern block of red clay offers up power and intensity with robust black fruit and tannins due to higher sunlight hours and later harvesting. The setting sun shades the Western side of this single vineyard and the black cracking clays offer a more fragrant, elegant wine complemented by spice and earthy notes.
Handpicked in two separate parcels at up to a few weeks apart depending on vintage conditions and immediately transported to the winery the fruit is gently de-stemmed into open top fermenters. It is then carefully nurtured for 6-7 days on skins with pump overs occurring twice daily, varying in duration and intensity. When primary fermentation is almost complete, the wine is drawn off from the skins and the must is gently basket pressed for 8 hours.
The wine remains in a stainless steel tank until primary fermentation is completed. It is then run directly into new French barriques coopered by Dominique Laurent where it spends 36 months in temperature-controlled conditions. Once the oak and the wine have melded perfectly the wine is blended and bottled without the use of filtration or fining. Finally, it is matured in the bottle for a further 24 months before release.
TORBRECK VINTNERS