2023 The Cote Shiraz

A single vineyard wine sourced from the famous, and slightly controversially named, Cote d’Or vineyard in central Pokolbin. The vineyard lies at almost 200 metres above sea level, on a steep northerly aspect of the ridge directly south of the Audrey Wilkinson Oakdale property. Cote d'Or was one of the first vineyards established by the Wilkinson family in 1866 by Alfred Wilkinson and his son Frederick (Audrey’s father). It was the fraternal home until the death of Alfred just before WW1. The original vineyard has long been pulled out, but seven acres were replanted on this ridge in 1971. The vineyard is dry-grown on relatively deep brown loamy soil, and scattered with Permian fossils.

The excellent 2023 vintage has certainly demonstrated the resilience of this site to produce great wine. The vineyard was hit with a nasty hailstorm in early January, and we had virtually written it off.
Towards the very end of the vintage, we went back for a final look and realised there was still some great-looking fruit that had ripened quite nicely. We decided to selectively hand-pick on March 3rd.
Destemmed (but not crushed) and then cold-soaked for 24 hours. After a further six days of fermentation on skins, the wine was pressed off into a combination of second, third, and fourth use barrels, which have provided a very subtle oak structural complexity to the wine.
Bottled - 25th June 2024
Production - 144 dozen
Released - 17th May 2025

13.5% ABV