The Colonial Estate Exile Shiraz 2006
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Robert
Parker
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About The Colonial Estate
In the middle 1800's the Lange family settled from Bavaria in the Barossa Valley. The vineyard that they decided to plant was just off the main road of Nuriootpa. The vines have been dry grown since then and the grapes have gone into the great and good of Australia including "Grange". Like "Chateau Haut-Brion" the town has grown up around it and it is now an oasis of a vineyard with houses surrounding it.
Exile is 100% sourced from the "Lange" Vineyard, now a part of The Colonial Estate. The single-vineyard wine is made up of old vine Shiraz with some Mourvedre and Muscadelle. The age of some of these vines date back to the 1800's.
The wine is made in the French fashion – low cropping aided by green harvesting, handpicking into trays, and double-triage on arrival at the winery. The wooden vats – shipped from Cognac in France -appear incongruous in their setting. The wine is picked ripe and, after vinification, poured into pure new French oak.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Colonial Estate's two flagship wines come from their own property. The 2006 Exile was sourced from a single 140-year-old vineyard with the blend consisting of 85% Shiraz, 10% Mourvedre, and 5% Grenache. Opaque purple/black in color, it exhibits a captivating perfume of toasty oak, smoke, black pepper, truffle, blueberry pie, and blackberry liqueur. Complex, silky-textured, and nicely balanced, this layered, lengthy wine will continue to improve over the next 4-6 years and have a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2026.
Other Vintages
2005-
Robert
Parker -
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Enthusiast
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
CWC's approach is deliberately and uniquely French. The wines are handpicked into trays and double-sorted. The reds receive cold pre-maceration, delestages, pigeage, and maceration on the skins prior to ageing in French oak; whilst the whites get whole-bunch pressing and lees batonnage and are fermented with yeasts imported from Champagne. The reds come, in principle from the prime Northern Arc of the Barossa Valley and the whites from the cool-climate of the Adelaide Hills. The wines are produced from vines that are either owned by the Company or are from selected growers.