Normans 1853 Museum Release Clarendon Shiraz 2007

Strong crimson red with a lighter red hue in colour. This wine displays raspberry flavours with darker berry fruit notes as well as broody oak layers derived from the use of newer more highly concentrated barrels. This allows nuances of cigar, toffee, apple, nutmeg and rich chocolate.

The palate is upfront and shows red berry characters highlighted by raspberry followed by more subtle notes of cassis, white pepper, leather, chocolate and caramel. Upon another taste and time to breath the wine opens up further to display beautiful nutmeg and an almost fortified character from its obvious age which is so smooth and mouth filling that it stays with you along with the oak and soft tannin structure for around 10 seconds.

Winemaking

The 2007 vintage was one of the most difficult for many years with the vines and subsequent yields suffering severely from Australia’s worst drought in recent history. Despite these extreme dry conditions the summer of 2007 was quite mild and still managed the typical cool nights so characteristic of McLaren Vale. The conditions were perfect for producing elegance and finesse and perhaps not normally associated with a drought situation. The fruit was sourced from a single vineyard up the road from the old Normans Winery at Clarendon in Bakers Gully. The vines were planted in 1932 and 1940 and have twisted and become gnarled from the elements they have faced over the past 70 years. The soil is red brown over limestone and turns at the end of the block to sandy loam. In total around 8 tonne of fruit was produced at under 2 tonne to the acre and the fruit was hand-picked and basket pressed then underwent traditional fermentation in small open top fermenters. The wine was aged for 5 years in oak hogheads barrels before final assembly from select barrels.

Cellaring

This Shiraz will drink beautifully now or may be cellared for 1-3 years.

Varietals Shiraz
Region Clarendon
Alcohol 14.5%
Winemaker John Harris