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My tribute to the Old Man is to resurrect the ‘Hydraulic Press Shiraz’ and hopefully reinforce this link with my past while bringing beautiful rich soft Barossa Shiraz to a new generation of drinkers.
I am a minimalist winemaker. My goal is to get the grapes into the bottle with as little manipulation as possible. I do not fine or filter my reds. I’ve found that the generally educated drinker is not afraid of a few tartrates in their wine. Time, patience persistence and good fruit will never be replaced with manipulative flavour adding techniques whilst I run my ship. A gentle long and ‘softly softly’ approach is essential when dealing with Barossa Shiraz. There is so much flavour that must be teased from the skins and a hard fast ferment is never going to capture all the subtleties only time can extract.
Bright yet deep red with a rich inviting purple core
Brilliant bright red raspberry up front over crunchy Sasuma plum interwoven around spice box complexity underpinned with savoury yeasty dark notes
Liltingly pure Shiraz in its natural environment bursts seductively over the palate playing ring-a-rosie with a fruit basket of red summer berries. Smooth and curvy like running your tongue along the duco of a super-car is the only way to describe the ridiculously smooth long lingering palate length with velvety soft tanning holding the whole show up.
Growing up in the Lehmann household had many advantages for the cheeky young fellas my Brother Phil and I once were. Undoubtedly, one of the best things was having clandestine access to ‘PL’ and Marg‘s Cellar and drinking (on the sly) the wines Dad made at Saltrams in the 60’s and 70’s. Not only was it bloody cheap (the Old Five Finger Discount) it also forged our palates and (for me at least) built the unconscious ‘markers’ that have defined the way my wine making style evolved. A perennial favorite for Phil and me was the ‘HP’ Shiraz blends from the first half of the 70‘s. These warm plush rich reds still echo in my mind’s palate and drinking them today never fails to remind just how great Barossa Shiraz really is. My tribute to the Old Man is to resurrect the ‘Hydraulic Press Shiraz’ and hopefully reinforce this link with my past while bringing beautiful rich soft Barossa Shiraz to a new generation of drinkers. The Barossa produces some of the greatest examples of Shiraz (not at all biased) in the world. The 2021 H.P. Hydraulic Press Shiraz is a fantastic reflection of the traditional ‘Barossa Style’.
In 2021 the Shiraz was ‘selective pick, machine harvested directly into our fermenters, then whole berry fermented in small batch open fermenters. Flavour and tannins were liberated from the skins by hand plunging three times a day for a minimum of 18 days on skins before basket pressing. A year or so on gross lees accomplishes the final flavour layer like nothing else can. Barossa Shiraz can have a tendency towards fatness so the rigid discipline of French oak and the fine grained tannins it imparts forms the backbone of my wood treatment. Eighteen months in tank and in oak before release develops the flavours for great now drinking, but also gives a wine that will go for another 10 years without blinking!
