Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz

Description

Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz is an Australian red wine blend made principally from Tapanappa’s Whalebone Vineyard in the Picadilly Valley. The  Shiraz grapes are sourced from the Shining Rock Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills.

Tapanappa Wines was founded in 2002 and was the coming together of three well-known wine families: Brian and Ann Croser of Australia, the Bollinger family of Champagne and the Cazes family of Lynch Bage in Pauillac. The Croser family have owned the estate since 2014 and today the estate is run by Brian Croser’s son-in-law and daughter, Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser. The estate consists of three distinguished vineyard sites: The Tiers Vineyard, planted with Chardonnay in 1979, the Whalebone Vineyard planted with Cabernet varieties in 1974 and the Foggy Hill Vineyard planted with Dijon clones on Pinot Noir rootstocks in 2003.

As mentioned above, the Cabernet Sauvignon was hand-harvested from the Whalebone Vineyard and delivered at night to the Tapanappa Winery in the Piccadilly Valley. The Shiraz was hand-harvested from the Shining Rock Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. The Whalebone Vineyard was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in 1974 by pioneering winemakers in the Wratonbully wine-growing region. It is names Whalebone because of the discovery of a 35 million year old whale skeleton in a limestone cave beneath the vineyard

Both grape varieties for the Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz are vinified separately but using the same method. The grapes were destemmed, gently crushed and the must was cold soaked on skins for 3 days before the fermentation was initiated. After fermentation began the tubs were hand plunged daily, fully immersing the skins in the fermenting juice. The fermentation lasted for 11 days after which the wine was left on skins for a 7-day maceration under inert gas cover.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz wines were gently pressed away from the skins and immediately gravity-fed to French oak barriques, 60% new and 40% single use, to undergo malo-lactic fermentation. At the end of malo-lactic fermentation, the wines were racked off gross lees and returned to barrique for a further 18 months of maturation. In December 2018 the wines were clear racked from the barriques and blended, 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and 16% Shiraz. The finished wine was bottled in February 2019.

Only 600 cases were produced.