Zeitgeist Red Wine - Shiraz

Zeitgeist: the spirit of the time; general trend or characteristic of a particular period in time.

Zeitgeist Shiraz… Diverse selection of Shiraz from Kalleske farm… untouched by time, oak or non-grape additives… capturing the spirit and character of vintage 2021.

By definition, each ‘vintage’ is unique.  Rainfall, sunshine, temperature, wind, humidity all vary dramatically from year to year.  The beauty of vines is that they characteristically reflect the season in their fruit.  Traditional winemaking of maturing wine in oak barrels over time can result in the bright, fresh, unique characteristics of the vintage being less evident.  Hence, Zeitgeist has been bottled to showcase the 2021 vintage in all its primary vibrant glory.  It is a cross section of multiple Shiraz blocks of the Kalleske family vineyard, ensuring a solid representation of the true character of the vintage.

Growing Season

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 absolutely 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.

Vineyard

The Kalleske vineyard is a diverse mix of 120 acres of vines spread over the 500 acre farm.  Shiraz dominates the plantings and multiple Shiraz blocks spanning from 1905 to 1998 were blended to make this wine.  Shiraz from these blocks will go into the usual Kalleske Eduard, Greenock, Moppa and Clarry’s wines.  All Shiraz vines are low yielding and soils are typically shallow sand with excellent clay subsoil.

Winemaking

The Shiraz blocks were harvested over numerous weeks from March 2^nd through to March 19^th.  Each batch was separately destemmed into an open top fermenter where it was native yeast fermented for 7-11 days on skins with hand pumpovers employed twice daily.  The musts were pressed and a portion of each lot was set aside in stainless tank to create this Zeitgeist blend.  Following natural malolactic fermentation and settling, the young wine was bottled forthwith, without sulphur dioxide, to capture the vibrancy and primacy of the vintage.

Tasting Notes

2021 Zeitgeist Shiraz is dark purple in colour.

There are luminous aromatics.  Plenty of perfume, fresh grapes, crushed blackberries, black cherries, sweet spice, violets and liquorice.      

The palate is bright, inviting and full-bodied.  Rich dark fruit characters dominate.  It is a generous wine in flavour intensity and palate weight.  Tannins are solid giving a robust structure to balance the luscious ripe fruit.  The purity and drive of this wine continues to the elongated finish.  A strikingly complex Shiraz for the age, Zeitgeist is best enjoyed now with its primal characters.