2011 James Halliday Rating - 90
A bright and fragrant bouquet is a promising start, and the citrus and tropical palate does not disappoint; finishes with refreshing lemony acidity. Screwcap.
12.5% alc. Rating 90 Drink 2011 $13 Date Tasted Nov 09
Vineyards
The Omrah Sauvignon is a 50/50 blend from our Mount Barker vineyard, Rosetta, and the Akehurst vineyard, in Pemberton. Both vineyards grow on gravel loam soils, are irrigated, spur pruned, vertically grown and canopy managed to create the dappled sunlight to filter through the verdant canopy for ideal flavour development.
Vintage Comments
A similar season to the 2008 vintage; though with marginally cooler conditions and lower yields. After a cool wet spring and early Summer, a dry February and March followed allowing flavours to intensify in a relatively disease and pestilence free environment. Mild sunny days were the norm during veraison though there were a few typically chilly days scattered throughout the growing season. The fruit ripened surely but steadily with the harvest of the low yielding (4.6 tonne/hec) Sauvignon at Rosetta on the 16th March. We harvested the Pemberton fruit between the 19 – 27th March. Sugars were much lower than usual, ranging between 20.7-21.7 brix, acids were around 8 g/L and fruit flavours had a delicious, highly varietal, piercing intensity.
Winemaking
Handling Sauvignon Blanc is the same as for all other aromatic white varieties – cold, quick, gentle, processing. The clean juice is racked off lees after 4 days settling and inoculated with a couple of different strains of yeast that cope with cool fermentation temperatures and enhance the Sauvignon flavours. A 20% portion of the wine is also barrel fermented and left on lees for two months before blending back to the main batch to enhance mouth feel and complexity, but without sacrificing fruit integrity and intensity. To enhance the complexity of the wine, the wine spends further time on lees to provide a slate-like minerally character till we filter the wine in November to bottle in early December.
Tasting Notes
Punchy lantana and gooseberries aromas with an undercurrent of vanilla lemon curd and a waft of wet stones.
A supple yet lithe palate with a fine core of crunchy acidity running the length of the palate with loads of mouth watering, vibrant fruit flavours. A harmonious wine with a crisp clean finish and fantastically long flavours. A very savvy Sav. Enjoy now.
Technical Details
Alcohol: 12.9%v/v
Total Acidity: 6.9 g/L
pH: 3.30
Sugar: 0.5 g/L
