2021 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:
GOLD Medal 95 Points - 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards
95 Points - 2024 Halliday Wine Companion
SILVER MEDAL - 2022 Yarra Valley Wine Show
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, an elegantly weighted palate, with fine, structural tannins and enduring acidity and flavour.
Winemaking:
Fruit was hand-picked, then meticulously sorted to select only the best berries for fermentation in two, small, open fermenters, each with approximately 15% 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:
2021 was dream Yarra Valley vintage, with almost ideal weather conditions throughout the entire season, leading to very healthy canopies and generous crops of beautiful fruit.
The season was generally mild and sunny, with very well-timed rain events for low disease pressure, good soil moisture and minimal requirement for supplementary irrigation. The season was long and late, allowing slow, steady and full ripening. Shiraz was harvested almost two weeks later than in a typical year.
The 2021 Old Block wines are stunning, with a unique freshness and intensity of perfectly ripe aromas, flavours, palate weight, focus and tannin structure – the best yet!
Technical Data:
Harvest Date: 20th March 2021
Variety: 100% Shiraz
Oak: 70% French, 20% Hungarian, 10% American barriques – 25% new
Alcohol: 13.4%
Acidity: pH 3.31, Titratable Acidity 6.7g/L
Total Cases produced: 1205 x 6 packs (750ml)