Kalleske Zeitgeist Shiraz 2018

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.

2018 Zeitgeist Shiraz is inky violet in colour. It displays heightened aromatics of fresh flowers, stewed fruits, licorice, clove spice, milk chocolate and dark cherry.  Extremely lively and perfumed.

The palate is rich and flavoursome, exuding plush dark fruits.  Tannins are smooth and notably integrated, giving palatial structure but allowing the pristine fruits to dominate resulting in a quite remarkable balance, given the youth of this wine.  The dark fleshy fruits continue well into the finish, completing a generous and captivating Shiraz.  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: The 2018 vintage was superb.  Winter was slightly wetter than average getting the vines off to a brilliant start leading them into Spring which was warmer and drier than average.  Rain in early December refreshed the vines and ensured they remained strong and healthy for the overall dry and hot Summer.  Autumn also remained dry with perfect Autumnal temperatures leading into harvest.  The 2018 yields are good and the quality is excellent, a classic Barossa vintage.

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 1998 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 19th through to April 3rd.  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 June, without sulphur dioxide, to capture the vibrancy and primacy of the vintage.

(SKU: KA_ZEI_18)