REGION: Barossa
VARIETIES: Shiraz 100%. Eligo represents the best of my 2009 vintage and is sourced from some excellent Shiraz vineyards in the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley regions.
WINEMAKING: Fermentation with submerged cap in small stainless steel fermenters. Some batches had up to 2 weeks on skins.
OAK MATURATION: 100% barrel matured for 20 months with 75% new fine grain French oak hogsheads (300 litre) and the balance 2 and 3 year old hogsheads.
Alcohol: 14.5% pH: 3.50 TA: 6.1 g/l
STYLE: Structured but elegant expression of Barossa Shiraz. A wine with restrained power, rich texture and palate length.
VINTAGE: The 2009 vintage was very successful with some excellent Shiraz produced. After the extreme temperature of the second half of the 2008 vintage it was good to receive average rainfall over winter and follow up rains of 100mm in November and December. This however was followed by a period of hot weather in late January, lasting through to early February. Conditions from then on were favourable with no extreme heat and little rain until late April. Vintage started 2 weeks later than 2008 with yields generally down. Shiraz in particular was down with yields the lowest since 2003.
Colour: Dense purple‐red. Nose: A youthful expressive of blackberry, blueberry and dark chocolate.
Palate: Multi layered with vibrant dark fruit. Intense but still restrained, with impressive structure and fruit intensity.
-John Duval