2022 Centare Vineyard Old Block Shiraz
Centare Vineyard is located in the heart of the Yarra Valley, Australia’s most prestigious, cool-climate wine region, renowned for producing some of the most exceptional, varietal wines in the world.
The ‘Old Block’ range of wines are single vineyard wines, made entirely from original estate vineyards that were planted to the region’s most classic varieties in 1998.
Yarra Valley Shiraz is one of the region’s best kept secrets, with the best, generally warmer sites, producing award winning wines with great depth and intensity of cool-climate character and flavour.
Awards & Reviews:
96 Points - 2024 Halliday Wine Companion
Tasting Notes:
This wine, as always, is an intensely varietal, highly perfumed, complex and flavoursome expression of cool-climate Yarra Valley Shiraz.
Red & blue berries, cracked white pepper & spice, cedar, vanilla and coffee bean undertones, this is a very robust and flavoursome Yarra Valley Shiraz, with ripe and firm, yet finely textured tannins that will carry and support wine structure for years to come.
'Another first-class Shiraz from this under-the-radar Yarra Valley producer. Dark cherries and blackberries intermingle with aromas of violets, white pepper and a little black olive tapenade. Like last year's version, this is densely packed on the palate with ripe and very persistent tannins suggesting that this is only going to become softer and more complex over time.' Philip Rich, February 2024
Winemaking:
Fruit was hand-picked, then meticulously sorted to select only the best berries for fermentation in two, small, open fermenters, one fermenter with approximately 15% whole bunches, the other with 30% whole bunches.
Fermenters were chilled for 48 hours before fermentation was allowed to commence and gently plunged twice daily during fermentation. The wine was ‘on skins’ for a total of 14 days before pressing to premium barriques for malolactic fermentation and maturation for eleven months before blending and bottling.
The Vintage:
2022 was a very low yielding Yarra Valley vintage, with very cool, wet and challenging Spring weather limiting the success of flowering and berry set. Fortunately the sun came out in late December and conditions remained almost ideal throughout ripening for all varieties.
Small berries and bunches produced wines with great intensity of flavour, colour and palate density.
The 2022 Old Block wines 'speak' of the vintage with perfect ripeness, freshness and depth of colour and flavour.
Technical Data:
Harvest Date: 24th March 2022
Variety: 100% Shiraz
Oak: 70% French, 20% Hungarian, 10% American barriques – 25% new
Alcohol: 13.85%
Acidity: pH 3.35, Titratable Acidity 6.4g/L
Total Cases produced: 1179 x 6 packs (750ml)