The Wines
Spring Seed Wines are made from grapes lovingly grown in our family's organic vineyard, located in the premium wine region of McLaren Vale, South Australia. The vineyard was established in the early 1970's by Peter and Anthea Bosworth, and is now owned and run by their son Joch, who began the conversion to organic viticulture in 1995.Organic farming is based on minimising the use of external inputs, and as such our certified organic grapes are grown and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilisers, or GMOs.
The Spring Seed Wine labels are unashamedly inspired by vintage flower seed packets created at the turn of the 18th century. The colour, clarity and beauty of the original seed packets are quite remarkable. We chose three different flower images to adorn each one of our McLaren Vale wines, simply because they are quite lovely. The Scarlet Runner Shiraz displays the Hardy and Half Hardy Climbers, Centaurea (Centaurea nervosa) and Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) label.
Vintage 2008
Average winter rains were followed by a very cool and dry late January/February, resulting in very healthy vines with big canopies and intensely varietal fruit which held their acidity extraordinarily well.
Winemaking
We aimed to make a wine without too much oak or winemaking artifice, where the fruit was the main event. As a result, on top of our old-fashioned winemaking techniques, there was more maturation in tank than in oak. In fact, we only used about 8% new (French) oak, and only a smattering of big old oak vessels for this purpose. Grapes were sourced from 3 different adjacent Shiraz blocks (all certified organic of course) from our vineyard, with most batches being open fermented. Yields were low, in the region of 3.75 tonnes/acre.
Tasting Note
The colour: purple, bright and vibrant, too. The nose shows blackberry, spice and bright black fruits. The palate continues the theme of brightness, with a fresh, light, long clean finish. The net result is a fresh, middle-weight style of Shiraz with bags of McLaren Vale fruit, vibrancy and flavour
Technical Details
| Picking Dates: | The majority was picked on 5 March 2008; a small amount on 3 and 8 March 2008. |
| pH: | 3.55 |
| Total Acidity: | 6.55 g/L |
| Alc/Vol: | 14.2% |
| Bottling Date: | 20 May 2009 |
