RSW Shiraz

Slow smoked beef brisket, celeriac puree, pickled cucumber and radish salad.

The ironstone cellars of Wirra Wirra house a history rich in mischief, adventure and dedication to creating great wines. The winery was built in 1894 by an eccentric former state cricketer, who absconded to McLaren Vale after embarrassing his family one too many times. It was re-built in the late 1960's by a visionary who dreamt of returning Wirra Wirra to its former glory. Greg Trott did more than that, he created a legacy of being dedicated to your craft while being equally serious about having fun and enjoying life.

Wirra Wirra sources fruit from a combination of owned vineyards and premium McLaren Vale growers. The blend of individual vineyard and sub-regional characteristics is the key to the resulting style. Blended from a combination of old vine McLaren Vale sites - typically low in vigour, producing modest yields of intense fruit. Soils range from deep sands over ironstone and loamy sand over Pirramimma sandstone clay.

Vineyard batches were matured separately for 18 months, each in their own individual selection of French oak (predominantly Burgundian.) The final blend comprised of approximately 30% new oak, the balance coming from largely two to three year old barrels.

Parcels from each vineyard were picked in small batches and fermented separately in two tonne open fermenters to maintain their distinct vineyard character. Each batch was tasted twice daily to determine the level of hand plunging and maceration required during fermentation. At the required level of tannin and fruit extraction, each ferment was basket pressed. Pressed batches were transferred to a tailored selection of French oak barriques and puncheons in which they completed malolactic fermentation. Following MLF and several times thereafter, individual wines were racked and returned. At the end of this program, select barrels from the most outstanding vineyards are blended and filtered with a single pass before going to bottle.