Our
Wines
2007 'Hopping Stone' Tempranillo
$22/bt
Description
The 2007 'Hopping Stone'
Tempranillo is a deep red/black coloured wine with a lifted nose of cherry
and plums and a savoury note that creates anticipation. The palate is lively
and finely balanced with round fruit flavours counter pointed by drying, fine
tannins giving into a long satisfying length. A wine that has potential to age
at least 3-7 years, but drinking wonderfully now.
If drunk with food (which is
certainly recommended as there are few greater pleasures), we recommend game and
spiced meats which will match with the aromatics and savoury flavours that this
wine brings to the palate. Tapas or smoked hams would be sensational
combinations and enhance both the wine and the food.
Sealed under
screwcap to ensure the wine made by us arrives to you as we intended it to.
Awards
Top Bronze medal - 2008 Margaret River Wine Show,
highest rated Tempranillo in Margaret River
Reviews
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Again this needs a bit of air but given
it, it really sings.
This has lots of dry, savoury tannin and
a good deal of sour-sweet cherry-like flavour. There’s spicy,
chocolaty, pencilly oak here too and the more it opens up the more
beguiling it becomes. I wasn’t sure of this at first but after a
couple of hours of sipping at it, I was loving it. It’s going to be
an interesting journey to see where this wine goes as it ages.
Rated : 91 Points
Alcohol : 13.6%
Price : $22
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2010 - 2015
The Wine Front
Technical Details
Our first wine
made from grapes outside of our estate, but one that was a collaboration between
ourselves and friends who own an estate developed to the most exacting
standards, and a passion and knowledge base that is of the highest level. Phil
and Lynne Foster own ‘Hopping Stone’ vineyard in the northern reaches of the
Margaret River region. Their site is more exposed and warmer than ours in Rosa
Brook, and with this added heat load they have planted varieties that appreciate
the warmth, with Tempranillo being one variety particularly suited to their
site. A tonne of fruit was handpicked by the two families at a point when the
grapes were predicted to be fully ripe and at their most flavoursome – which
proved to be correct in the tasting of the final wine.
The 2007
vintage was exceptionally good. The season started with a warm spring with
little rainfall, and the summer months were extremely dry and without the
excessive heat load that has often occurs during the months of January and
February. With this even heat load and dry end of vintage, the 2007 grapes were
both clean and fully ripe with picking able to be completed at the point of full
ripeness and flavour. The fruit was severely thinned prior to harvest, and during
hand harvesting any grapes that were considered not good “enough to eat” were
dropped on the ground. The technical data on these hand picked grapes are as
below:
Tempranillo:
Picked 22 March 2007
Total weight 869 kg
Brix 24.5
pH 4.04
TA 4.30
These grapes
were taken in by Sharna Kowalczuk and her assistant Jane from Vasse River Wines
and treated with 'kid gloves' to ensure the magnificent flavours seen in the
fruit and the primary ferment were protected and enhanced. The wine was
fermented in an open vat and continuously hand plunged to extract colour and
tannins softly, with ferment being completed after 10 days. The wine was
lightly pressed and placed in new and old French oak barrels and stored for 18
months.
