Passing Clouds Serpentine Bendigo Shiraz 2019 750mL

The Serpentine Shiraz is a luxury gifted to us. Bendigo produces such high-quality shiraz, we have the good fortune to be making a wine this potent, and this indulgent. The Serpentine is a wine built on being luscious, full of heft, exuberant, and damn good drinking. The Serpentine is only made in certain quality years.

Aroma: This is a nose that leaps from the glass, potent sweet raspberry, thick plum juice, sits above a richness, chocolate and earth.

Palate: The palate is velvety, tannin holds this wine upright with concentrated fruit, lifted by almost 50 days on skins. A finesse still holds in this wine, with subtle spice leading to a finish where the length is extraordinary.

Notes: The fruit is 100% de-stemmed and hand sorted before being traditionally vinified in open stainless-steel fermenters, which are hand plunged twice a day. The Serpentine Shiraz is made entirely from Post Ferment Maceration. Matured in 100% neutral French oak for 17 months. A barrel selection, and minimum of 12 months bottle maturation.

Viticulture: The Serpentine vineyard sits on the banks of the Loddon River 42 km north-west of the township of Bendigo. 20-year-old shiraz (PT23) vines. Soils of sandy clay loam over friable reddish clay with limestone pebbles. A warm dry climate with annual rainfall of 350mm. The vines are cane pruned with shoot and bunch thinning. Minimal irrigation and low rainfall with the sandy soils, results in a balanced canopy more reminiscent of a dry grown vineyard. Subsequently application of fungicide is rare and other intervention is minimal. The 2019 vintage was a warm and dry vintage providing powerful ripe fruit. Reminiscent of the original Serpentine Shiraz vintage, 2016.