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.

Zeitgeist Shiraz 2017 is intense dark purple in colour. The perfumed aromatics are striking. Bright primary fruits abound. There is ripe plum, violet florals and crushed blackberry. Milk chocolate and clove spice are also evident, adding complexity to the vivid fruits. The palate is full flavoured and energetic. The pure fruits from the aroma flourish throughout the palate. Whilst juicy, there is also a round softness to the wine adding a lightly creamy texture to balance the primal fruits and finely structured natural tannins. Extremely alluring, it is very generous in flavour and weight. This dynamism and generosity continues to the lengthy, expressive and radiant finish. A strikingly 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 2017 was stunning. The vines got off to a fantastic start with a wetter than average Winter and mild Spring. Summer brought typically average warm conditions with some excellent rainfall, twice the average. This kept the vines in superb condition for steady ripening into Autumn which remained dry with warm sunny days and cool nights. Yields from 2017 are good and quality is exceptional.

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 20th through to April 18th. Each batch was separately destemmed into an open top fermenter where it was native yeast fermented for 7-14 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 early May, without sulphur dioxide, to capture the vibrancy and primacy of the vintage.