The Crayères Vineyard Reserve 2018

The Crayères Vineyard Reserve is the classic Australian blend, a Cabernet (Sauvignon and Franc) and Shiraz assemblage, following the long-established tradition of Cabernet Shiraz fine Australian wines. It is made every year using the best parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Cabernet Franc from our estate vineyard. The warm and dry 2018 vintage is the fourth release of this wine. It is a supremely elegant wine, with red and black berry fruit characters, and a perfect length.

The 2018 growing season was hot and dry, though without heatwaves, and started with good rainfall in winter and early spring. Flowering conditions were good but fruitset was average. The dry months of December, January and February restrained shoot growth and favoured smaller berries in the red varieties, and the vineyard was spared from the November frost that damaged some vineyards in the Limestone Coast. Cabernet Franc and Shiraz were the only varieties in need of fruit thinning on 2018. Véraison occurred late January for all varieties. The Crayères vineyard did not experience any severe heatwaves in 2017/18, but the temperatures were consistently higher than average, with adequate water stress after flowering.

The fruit was transported back to the Tiers winery in the Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills before it was crushed and destemmed. The must was fermented in potter fermenters. After fermentation and maceration, the must was pressed off skins and each variety was racked and aged in French oak barrels (average of 74% new oak) for an average of nine months. The varieties were then blended to a 5-year old 4,000L French oak foudre and aged for a further nine months. After a very light egg fining in foudre, the wines were racked one more time in tank, before bottling without filtration in May 2020. The Crayères Reserve is aged in bottle for a minimum of 18 months before release.