Pirathon - 2020 Vintage

Vintage Notes

Growing Season

The 2020 growing season was a challenging one viticulturally. The 2019 calendar year was the driest on record for the Nuriootpa weather station with just 291 mm of rain falling. Winter rainfall was close to average, but Spring and early Summer were very dry. Hot weather in November including 42C on Nov 20 impacted flowering for the second year in around. December continued the hot weather with two heat waves impacting vine growth and berry development. Apart from the odd hot day in January temperatures moderated. Maximum temperatures during the harvest months of February and March were 35 C with a big rain event of February 1 providing over 20 mm of welcome rain. Yields as expected with the variable weather conditions were very low but cooler harvest temperatures at least slowed down ripening so there was no rush to harvest quickly.

Vineyard

The grapes were harvested from the low-yielding vineyards of traditional family growers across the Barossa Valley. Each vineyard adds its own exclusive dimension to Pirathon Shiraz and combined they produce the ultimate blend.

Winemaking

Each vineyard was harvested at optimal maturity across a 6 week period between mid February and late March. Following harvest, each individual lot of grapes was crushed into a separate open top fermenter. During fermentation, hand pump-overs gently extracted colour and flavour from the grapes. After 7-10 days on skins the fermented grapes were pressed with a traditional press. The wines were then filled to new and seasoned American, French, Russian and Hungarian oak hogsheads for maturation for eighteen months before each lot of wine was racked from the barrel and carefully blended. The wine was bottled without fining, ensuring the true expression of the vineyards in the bottle.