2009 Radford Eden Valley Menagerie

VINEYARD & HARVEST

The Mataro, Grenache and Alicante component of this wine, are sourced from a small block on the Northern side of Eden Valley near the township of Keyneton.  The vineyard itself is rather unusual with a range of rich red soil interspersed with gray brown podzolic soil.  Planted on the contour and taking advantage of these mixed patches of soil – each row is a smorgasbord of cultivars.  Some rows are solely Mataro, others start with Grenache and finish with Alicante.  For the unseasoned picker it can be a challenge, but for old hands, it’s a joy to be in this quirky vineyard.

VINIFICATION

The grapes are all handpicked into 350kg bins, keeping each variety separate.  Each batch is then treated as an individual wine from the outset.  Crushed, and left to ferment for 8 - 10 days in open fermenters, with morning and evening pumpovers to extract both colour, flavour and to aerate the wine.  Gently basket pressed then matured in a combination of old and new French hogsheads for 18 months.  The base wine is finally blended and returned to barrel for a few more months, until bottling.

Winemaker's Comments

While researching how well Mataro would grow in the much cooler Eden Valley region as opposed to its warmer cousin Barossa, we came across this fantastically quirky vineyard.  The blend  evolved really naturally too – Mataro for spiciness ( 40%), Grenache (30%) for fruit and depth, Alicante (20%) offers an earthiness and a little lick of Shiraz (10%) pulls it all together with a taught backbone and deep smokiness.  A great blend that is reminiscent of Southern France with Morello cherries & 5 spice  on the nose, following through to the palate and lovely savoury notes