2011 Museum Hunter Valley 'Coquun' Shiraz

Fermented on skins at 18 - 20 Degrees for 7 days. Matured in selected French oak for 12 months prior to blending and bottling.

Our Hunter harvest started later than usual (27th January) but back to normal in historical terms. After a mild and wet spring and early summer things dried up. The cooler than normal weather patterns have helped the fruit retain good natural acidity ensuring great balance and length of flavour. Good rainfall throughout last year has allowed the vines to return to normal cropping levels (after the minuscule crops of 2010). Overall a very good harvest from the Hunter Valley.

Pepper Tree's Hunter Valley vineyard is in the Mount View area of the Lower Hunter Valley in the sheltered foothills of the Brokenback Range and covers 38.5 ha of plantings. The Mount View area contains 3 small protected subvalleys with highly favourable soils influenced by the large proportion of limestones in the underlying rocks. Terra Rossa clays over crumbly limestone and free draining red and brown clay loams cover hill slopes and are planted to red varieties as well as Chardonnay. Alluvial loams along the vineyard's creek flats are ideal soils for Semillon and Verdelho.

2014 AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 94 Light to medium red-purple; an elegantly polished and refined shiraz, driven by its fruit and sense of place, and not by oak or tannins; it is positively silky, with a gently juicy dary berry substrate, and a long finish. Drink to 2031.