Winemaker Notes
-Wine Advocate
The fruit for the "Covenant" Shiraz was handpicked from four dry-grown premium vineyards located in the Leasingham district of the Clare Valley. Traditional methods of vinification were used through the winemaking process, fermentation taking place in small open vats and gently processed through a basket press. The wine spent twenty-four months maturation in French and American oak hogsheads before careful blending and bottling.
Intense, inky / crimson red with distinct youthful, purple hues. Lifted sweet plum and berry fruits combine and integrate with the menthol, char and smoky oak characters. A great example of a full-bodied Clare Valley Shiraz, the palate being richly layered and textured. Chocolate and plum fruits create sweetness with classy French and American oak integrates and supports providing seamless length and flavor persistence. Cellaring potential of at least 12 – 15 years.
Professional Ratings
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.