$150.00
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The Alternative View is 100% dedicated to massive flavour, palate weight and kick arse structure… It’s called Fucking Awesome for a very good reason!
300 liters of ‘House on the Hill’ Shiraz Free Run and Pressings Ex our Stelzer Road Vineyard Paired with new Ermitage Trocais Light long toast Three year seasoned French oak hogshead
Total Production 384 bottles, Committed to glass
Brooding deep rich red Purple with a dense black core
Intense Red and Black summer berries laced with cherries over licorice and cedar box with smoky yeasty undertones
Initial black currants licorice and an explosion of ripe raspberry ably supported by rich deep Satsuma plum brooding below. The middle palate starts with Chocolate over cigar box that volatilizes cleanly to reveal deep yeasty black tea and shiitake mushrooms. The Assertive acid and firm yet velvety tanning gives a palate that lingers on and on.
The absolute joy of small batch wine making for me is the ability to see every little parcel of fruit in isolation from the very start. In my mind the micro nuances of soil, clone and vigor within my vineyards can freely express themselves to produce a veritable palate of different (in this case) Shiraz from which my finished wines are eventually built. The “Wall of Sound” concept of making music is directly translated into the winery whereby the multiple batches built in isolation from basically a very small geographical area when brought together help weave a complex tapestry of nuance aroma flavour and structure that would in my opinion otherwise be lost to homogeneity. The really cool result of this whole process is that the truly magnificent single barrel parcels can be virtually identified in the fermenter, guided into appropriate oak and watched carefully over during their development. To create the 2014 Alternative View Shiraz, the three or four absolutely standout hogsheads of 2014 Shiraz were all lined up next to each other (well glasses of each were) and honestly appraised as to which barrel is the ballsy-est gnarliest most excellently intense wine of the year. Once the decision was made the winning barrel was carefully racked (about 3 months prior to being bottled) and spent the remaining time naturally clarifying! Over these three months I do my little 'twizzle and tweak' adding a percent of this and a percent of that to ensure the blend is just so before finally committing the 300 liters to bottle. Really pretty simple, but this is how the 2014 ‘Alternative View’ FA 300 was conceived, gestated and born. Its so named because as opposed to my guiding ethos for the Benjamin’s Promise, the Alternative View is 100% dedicated to massive flavour, palate weight and kick arse structure... It’s called
Fucking Awesome for a very good reason!
