Thorn-Clarke ‘Shotfire’ Shiraz 2019 Barossa Valley, Australia

With a Barossa heritage of 6 generations, and years of carefully planned vineyard development, Thorn-Clarke produces fine and true examples of the wines that have made this region famous. The Shotfire range of wines immortalizes the shotfirer’s hazardous job of setting and lighting the charges in the mines. As he cried “fire’s on” to clear the site quickly, he would run for shelter behind the nearest ridge. The grapes for this wine are crushed and destemmed into open fermenters. Yeast is added immediately once in fermenter and the ferments are pumped over twice daily to maximise color, tannin and flavor extraction. Cooling is used to ensure ferments remain in the 22-25 degrees celcius range which will allow the fruit to display maximum fruit expression. Pressing then occurs approximately seven days after crushing. The wine was aged for 14-16 months in 40% new French and American oak hogsheads. Purple-colored, it offers up a nose of toasty oak, Asian spices, incense, blueberry, and blackberry.