RockBare McLaren Vale Grenache

The key to capturing the brightness with this block of Grenache is to harvest early in the season. The grapes were hand harvested in the 2nd week March. At the winery, grapes were run across a mechanical sorting table to whole berries and tipped into open top fermenters. After a period of 3 days cold soaking, the must was allowed to warm naturally until inoculation with yeast for fermentation, which was carried out to dryness. Fermentation temperature was kept nice and cool between 20-25C, for 15 days, to retain the brightness and pretty aromatics of the wine. Upon completion of fermentation, the ferment was pressing through a basket press, and wine was packed up to a stainless steel tank and a few older French oak barriques for the completion of secondary malo-lactic fermentation. Upon completion of MLF, the wine was left for 4 months on yeast lees to build some complexity before preparation for bottling early in September of the same year.