By definition, each ‘vintage’ is unique. Rainfall, sunshine, temperature, wind, humidity all vary dramatically from year to year. The beauty of vines is that they characteristically reflect the season in their fruit. Traditional winemaking of maturing wine in oak barrels over time can result in the bright, fresh, unique characteristics of the vintage being less evident. Hence, Zeitgeist has been bottled to showcase the 2014 vintage in all its primary vibrant glory. It is a cross section of multiple Shiraz blocks of the Kalleske family vineyard, ensuring a solid representation of the true character of the vintage.

The Kalleske Zeitgeist Shiraz 2014 is amazingly vibrant in colour with intense dense purple and black. The aromatics are vivid and perfumed with plenty of bright primary fruits. There are characters of plum, violet, freshly crushed blackberries, dark cherry, a hint of licorice, musk and sweet spice. The palate is equally as bright and inviting. Rich red and black fruits engulf the palate with structure added by solid but naturally integrated tannins. The wine is full bodied and generous in flavour and weight. The finish is lengthy with radiant fruit offset by dry lingering tannins. An amazingly complex wine for the age, Zeitgeist is enjoyable now with its primal characters but is powered to cellar well for many years to come.

VINTAGE: Vintage 2014 was an excellent year. The wines from 2014 are strong with deep and vibrant colour, excellent fruit definition and solid but integrated tannin structure ensuring longevity for the wines. The 2014 growing season began with slightly above average Winter rainfall however Spring and early Summer were very dry with 40% less rain than normal. Temperatures were also up with the Spring/Summer growing season being an average of 2 degrees C warmer. However, this dry and warm season changed dramatically in mid February with 100mm of rain falling, the wettest February day in 45 years. This slowed the ripening of the grapes considerably and combined with average mild temperatures in March (25.7 degrees C) a steady ripening of the grapes ensued. This ensured good flavour and moderate sugar development producing outstanding quality.

VINEYARD: The Kalleske vineyard is a diverse mix of 120 acres of vines spread over the 500 acre farm. Shiraz dominates the plantings and multiple Shiraz blocks spanning from 1905 to 1994 were blended to make this wine. Shiraz from these blocks will go into the usual Kalleske Eduard, Greenock, Moppa and Clarry’s wines. All Shiraz vines are low yielding and soils are typically shallow sand with excellent clay subsoil.

WINEMAKING: The Shiraz blocks were harvested over numerous weeks from March 3rd through to March 27th. Each batch was separately destemmed into an open top fermenter where it was native yeast fermented for 7-10 days on skins with hand pumpovers employed twice daily. The musts were pressed and prior to filling to barrel a portion of each lot was set aside in stainless tank to create this Zeitgeist blend. Following settling, the young wine was bottled in May, without sulphur dioxide, to capture the vibrancy and primacy of the vintage.