'Dodger' Tempranillo

Description

Our Kalleske vineyard and farm was established at Greenock in the Barossa’s North-West in 1853. Since the early 1900s, the ‘dodger’ has been indispensible in the vineyard. The vine dodger is a mechanical weeder that removes weeds from around the vines whilst dodging the vines themselves. In the early years the dodger was pulled by a horse and steered by hand and then in the 1960s the horse was replaced by a tractor.

Fundamentally the dodger hasn’t changed much and today it is still used to naturally control the weeds in our vineyards. Dodger Tempranillo is a single vineyard wine that’s been grown, vintaged and matured on our Kalleske property. Vigilant grape growing, traditional winemaking and sixteen months barrel maturation has resulted in a sophisticated, medium bodied Tempranillo displaying classic structure and varietal expression typical of our Kalleske vineyard.

GROWING SEASON Vintage 2012 was a fantastic year. The wines from 2012 are outstanding and up there with 2010 and 2002 as the best wines to come out of our Kalleske winery. Vintage 2012 began with a good growing season of moderate rainfall and normal temperatures. Summer and Autumn were perfect with generally warm sunny days and only a few heat periods but nothing extreme. The weather was generally dry with an occasional shower of rain refreshing the vines. The perfect mid-high 20s weather ensured the grapes ripened steadily and evenly producing outstanding quality.

VINEYARD The single-vineyard Dodger Tempranillo block is the newest variety on the Kalleske property. The hand-pruned vines are low-yielding and are grown in sandy loam soil with quartz and ironstone over deep red clay.

WINEMAKING The grapes were picked on 20th March 2012 and then destemmed into an open top fermenter. The must was wild-fermented for 8 days on skins with hand pump-overs twice a day. After pressing off skins the Tempranillo was filled to seasoned French oak hogsheads where it underwent natural malolactic fermentation in barrel. Dodger was matured in barrel for sixteen months prior to bottling.

TASTING NOTES Dodger Tempranillo 2012 is deep red in colour. The aroma displays interesting complexity with sweet and savoury nuances of dark cherry, spice, almond, herbs, blackcurrant, tobacco and a hint of earth. These sweet and savoury characters continue to the medium bodied palate. Chewy but finely integrated tannins balance the wild fruit flavours. The wine is well structured and very harmonious. A lingering savoury finish completes a varietally true and very flavoursome Tempranillo. Dodger can be enjoyed now or over the next eight years.