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Wine Description
The Story
JACOB’S CREEK Heritage range comprises the finest wines made under the Jacob’s Creek brand. Each Heritage wine honors a person and place in the rich history of Gramp & Sons winery that stretches back over 160 years. Naturally this wine which sits at the top of the Jacob’s Creek wine range honours the founder of the Gramp & Sons winery, Johann Gramp, who planted his first vines on the banks of Jacob’s Creek in 1847.
Wine Information
Colour: Dense crimson red with a vibrant hue.
Nose: Rich and complex, showing a harmonious blend of ripe blackberry and licorice characters from Shiraz, with bright cassis fruits and distinctive mint, lift from the Cabernet Sauvignon. Oak is playing a subtle supporting role on the nose to the fresh vibrant primary fruit which is offset by a briary, savoury edge.
Palate: This classic Australian blend of Shiraz and Cabernet dances across the palate. The concentrated and stylish fruit flavours are lovely, while the dense and seamless tannins combining with the elegantly integrated oak really set this wine apart. These elements combine to give a wine with density of flavour, seemingly effortless power and length that is, at all times, in perfect balance.
Cellaring: Carefully cellaring this wine for the next 10-15 years will enable further development and integration of the ripe and intense fruit flavours. Our winemaker recommends that the ideal year of drinking would be 2019.
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
The Barossa celebrated an exceptional vintage in 2012. Indeed, many judges consider it among the best in the region’s decorated history. A long and wet winter provided the soil moisture needed for lush and healthy grapevine canopies and left good reserves of groundwater for the months ahead. Budburst and flowering came early and easily, before a mild summer with cool nights that ensured good fruit set and even, disease-free ripening. Yields were slightly down, but fruit quality was exhilaratingly good.
Only the very best fruit is selected for Johann, the wine that honours the founder of Jacob’s Creek. For the 2012 vintage a mixture of Shiraz and Cabernet was chosen from two blocks on the Willandra Vineyard in the heart of the Barossa Valley.
WINEMAKING
Our winemakers tasted the fruit regularly during the ripening period to ensure it was harvested at just the right time. The Cabernet was picked on 25 February and the Shiraz was handpicked from a selected section of 90-year-old vines three days later. Once harvested, individual parcels were de-stemmed and crushed to small static fermenters. Fermentation was initiated with neutral yeast strains and temperatures were allowed to peak at around 28ºC before chilling back to 18-22ºC for the completion of fermentation.
The fermenters were pumped over regularly to ensure thorough yet gentle extraction of colour and tannins from the skins. The progress of each ferment was monitored twice daily and each individual ferment was pressed separately. Shiraz was filled to selected new French and American oak hogsheads, while Cabernet was filled to new and second use French and American oak hogsheads, where natural malolactic fermentation and subsequent maturation took place.
After the wines had aged in oak for 18 months, the winemaking team assessed them on the tasting bench and decided on a blend of 81% Shiraz and 19% Cabernet. For blending, all barrels were tasted to select the best and most suitable for the blend. Ten new French oak barrels were selected for the Cabernet and a mix of new French/American oak for the Shiraz. Just 1500 cases of the final wine were bottled, and they are sure to do the legacy of Johann proud.
Vintage 2012
Lower-than-average yields in Australia, as across much of Europe. This was blamed on high winds, drought and low fruitfulness resulting from the poor 2011 vintage. Quality, however, was much better than in the exceptionally damp 2011, with South Australia avoiding some of the weather extremes experienced by other states. Strong varietal typicality is a commonly cited feature of the 2012 crop.
