John Glaetzer has been a long time supporter of Langhorne Creek fruit and Shiraz was the wine that started it all for Gipsie Jack …. During the early 2000’s some of John’s loyal Langhorne Creek growers from his Wolf Blass days started to encounter some tough times, so John, along with great mate and local vigneron Bill Potts, decided the time was right to take matters into their own hands and help out a few of their mates … and so the Gipsie Jack wine label began.

Viticulture Notes:

Selected parcels of estate grown Shiraz from our 60-year-old vines, along with fruit sourced from local growers was used in the making of this wine. The vines that provided the fruit for this wine, are grown on traditional Langhorne Creek floodplain alluvial soils, as well as from some newer plantings on tighter clays over limestone.

Winemaking:

The fruit for this wine was picked in several separate batches, all of which were de-stemmed and crushed to small open top fermenters. The wine was then pumped over 2-3 times daily throughout fermentation to extract colour, flavour and tannins prior to pressing to seasoned French and American oak hogsheads. The wine then underwent malolactic fermentation in oak, prior to maturation in the same barrels until blending and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Deep red/purple in colour, the 2018 Shiraz has quite a lifted, floral nose with red fruits, pepper and spice coming to the fore with some dense blackcurrant and blackberry. The nose is quite primary and fresh. The palate has a thick core of red and dark berry fruits along with the usual (for this wine) briary, tarry characters and some spicy peppery complexity. The wine has good length with some lovely chewy tannin and a nice acid line (that enhances the length) and should help with longevity in the bottle. As per the norm, there is just a lick of quality sweet oak on the finish. Although this wine still shows some good concentration and is approachable in its youth, it does have some elegance about it and should age well.

Cellaring - Designed for drinking now, but will further develop and reward cellaring for 5+ years