Tasting notes for Kalleske Zeitgeist Shiraz 2024 from the Winery

Zeitgeist Shiraz… Diverse selection of Shiraz from Kalleske farm… untouched by time, oak or non-grape additives… capturing the spirit and character of vintage 2024.

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 2024 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.

Colour: 2024 Zeitgeist Shiraz is opaque inky purple black in colour.

Aroma: It has a vivacious perfumed lift with bright violets, blackberries, blueberries, and sweet clove spice, along with a touch of anise.  Vivid, primal and very alluring.

Palate: On the palate, these elemental Shiraz characteristics continue with a rich, full-bodied flavour profile.  It is a solid wine, with the plush ripeness encompassing a sturdy backbone.  The natural tannins are prominent, perfectly integrated, adding a refreshing dryness throughout, perfectly balancing the luscious fruits.  The length is amazing, with dark varietal purity enduring for a long time.

Recommended Drinking: Radiant and expressive, Zeitgeist is best enjoyed now with its primal characters. 

Growing Season

Vintage 2024 was excellent.  Winter and Spring were drier and slightly warmer than average leading to earlier budburst, flowering and veraison.  Summer welcomed refreshing rainfall, average temperatures, with no extreme heat, ensuring the vines flourished with their very balanced crop load and apt canopy leading to steady ripening.  Autumn began warm and finished mild, continuing the consistent ripening of grapes until harvest was finished in mid-Autumn.  The yields are overall average, and the quality is superb.

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 two weeks from February 28^th through to March 13^th.  Each batch was separately destemmed into an open top fermenter where it was native yeast fermented for 7-10 days on skins with hand pump-overs 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 natural malolactic fermentation and settling, the young wine was bottled forthwith, without sulphur dioxide, to capture the vibrancy and primacy of the vintage.

Technical Details
Alcohol: 14.5%
Region: Greenock, SA
Wild fermented on skins for 10-12 days
Organic
Biodynamic
Vegan Friendly
No added sulphites

(SKU: KA_ZEI_CV)