Kalleske Dodger Tempranillo 2019 Tasting Notes from the winery

Dodger Tempranillo is a medium bodied wine perfect for pairing with food. On the nose we take in pure Tempranillo joy - with lifted aromas of herbs, leather, earth and dried plum. The palate exhibits spice, crunchy red fruits and marzipan all gently supported by subtle oak. Ever important for mouth feel, natural tannins are prominent, adding an extra level of structure and chewiness, and each sip comes full circle with a dry lingering finish. Dodger, in testament to the quality of the grapes used to make it, can be enjoyed now or over the next eight years, where tannins will soften and flavours will mellow.

KALLESKE

Our Kalleske vineyard and farm was established at Greenock in the Barossa’s North-West in 1853. Since the early 1900s, the ‘dodger’ has been indispensible in the vineyard. The vine dodger is a mechanical weeder that removes weeds from around the vines whilst dodging the vines themselves. In the early years the dodger was pulled by a horse and steered by hand and then in the 1960s the horse was replaced by a tractor. Fundamentally the dodger hasn’t changed much and today it is still used to naturally control the weeds in our vineyards. Dodger Tempranillo is a single vineyard wine that’s been grown, vintaged and matured on our Kalleske property. Vigilant grapegrowing, traditional winemaking and maturation in seasoned French oak hogsheads has resulted in a sophisticated, medium bodied Tempranillo displaying classic structure and varietal expression typical of our Kalleske vineyard.

GROWING SEASON

Quality from 2019 is stunning. It was a warm and extremely dry growing season with rainfall down significantly (39%), making it one of the driest years in the past century. Summer was 3 degrees warmer than average. Yields were impacted by the dry season, leading to smaller berries and bunches. Importantly quality is brilliant producing richly flavoured, intense wines.

VINEYARD

The single-vineyard Dodger Tempranillo block is the newest variety on the Kalleske property. The hand-pruned vines are low-yielding and are grown in sandy loam soil with quartz and ironstone over deep red clay.

WINEMAKING

The grapes were picked on March 8th 2019 and then destemmed into small open top fermenters. The must was wild-fermented for 12 days on skins with skins submerged for the entire time. After pressing off skins the Tempranillo was filled to seasoned French oak hogsheads where it underwent natural malolactic fermentation in barrel. Dodger was matured in barrel for thirteen months prior to bottling.

(SKU: KA_TEM_19)