Zeitgeist: the spirit of the time; general trend or characteristic of a particular period in time.

Zeitgeist Shiraz… Diverse selection of Shiraz from Kalleske farm… untouched by time, oak or non-grape additives… capturing the spirit and character of vintage 2019.

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 2018 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.   

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 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 February 26th through to March 13th.  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 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.  

Tasting Notes

Zeitgeist Shiraz 2019 is dark indigo-purple in colour.

It is immediately uplifting with perfume, blueberry, violets, clove spice, licorice and black olive.  Very immense aromatics. The pure and expressive fruit continues to the lively palate.  It is full-bodied and oozes rich dark plush radiant Shiraz.  Juicy and very weighty, natural tannins add presence and a fine structure.  Youthful but flawlessly balanced, the exquisite fruit purity lingers giving an extremely lengthy 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.   

(SKU: KA_ZEI_19)