Colour:
2021 Johann Georg Shiraz is deep opaque purple-black in colour.
Aroma:
The aroma is a beautiful lift of blackberries, dark chocolate, liquorice, spiced fruit cake and ripe cherry with notes of roasted nuts and smoked smallgoods; very potent, superbly expressive.
Palate:
The palate is dense and uber concentrated in classic old vine traits. Saturated dark inky fruits prevail with stylish supportive oak giving a mesh of blackcurrant, anise, malt, cedar and graphite. Approachable now with its glossy fruit, solid natural tannins arrive giving structure and a dry lingering finish with assurance of a long-lived wine. This is a glorious Shiraz of rich flavours and impeccable balance perfectly manifesting ancient Barossa vines.
Recommended Drinking:
Johann is a superb wine that will ultimately benefit from a decade or two in the cellar.
The ancient Shiraz vines were hand-picked on March 11th and the grapes destemmed into a small open top fermenter. The grapes were fermented for eight days where a heading down screen was employed to submerge the skins throughout the fermentation ensuring gentle colour and flavour extraction. The must was pressed and filled to new and seasoned French oak hogsheads. The wine was matured for two years prior to bottling
Vintage 2021 was an exemplary year with fine wines and good yields. Growing season rainfall was marginally below average and temperatures were mild ensuring vine canopies remained healthy. Vintage weather was perfect throughout, with dry mild-warm days and cool nights ensuring even and steady ripening across all varieties. There is strong colour and flavour across all the reds along with excellent structure and balance whilst the whites are bright, fresh and elegant
This vineyard was planted in 1875 and produces very low yields of around one tonne per acre from old, gnarly, dry grown vines. The topsoil is sandy with excellent clay subsoil.