Description
Luddite Shiraz 2020
Even though the drought was broken, and we had better rainfall leading up to the harvest, the knock-on effect of the previous five years drought still affected us as the vines struggled to recover. Unfortunately, our crop was low again and both blocks were picked together and fitted into one tank for fermentation.
Due to the high skin to juice ratio, we got incredible colour within a few days of fermentation. We allowed the malolactic fermentation to finish while on skins which gave us extra post-fermentation maceration and a chance for the wine to pick up really fine tannins. We pressed and allowed the wine to finish malolactic fermentation in the tank before racking to barrel. After 2 years in barrel, we made up the final blend using a small amount of Mourvèdre and Cabernet Sauvignon from our own vineyards to fill out the mid-palate. 100% French Oak of which 11% was new.
Grapes were sourced from Luddite vineyard sites:
Young Block harvested on the 11th February 2020
Old Block harvested on the 11th February 2020
Background
Some people describe Luddite Shiraz as Niels Verburg contained in a glass; Niels is six foot four and his smile is the embodiment of a warm embrace.
As a young winemaker traveling the world, Niels confirmed his love for Shiraz when working a harvest in Australia, but it was a winery in Chile that inspired his wine-making method. “It was as if I’d gone back 20 years; it was ramshackle and chaotic, but they had great fruit and passion and I’d never seen that quality of wine”, he explains.
“The nitty gritty of good winemaking is to have good grapes, good yeast and good barrels,” says Niels. “Being hi-tech and cutting edge isn’t important to me. When you go into a winery and see the centrifuges and reverse osmosis, it’s like going into the kitchen of a top restaurant and seeing a microwave, you think “Hey, that’s not right!”’
Luddite Shiraz 2000 was the Luddite’s first vintage. “There’s been an improvement every year,” says Niels. “The ultimate goal would be a perfect wine, but of course that doesn’t exist.”
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