A traditionally wet winter, mild spring and excellent fruit set provided a great start to the 2015 vintage after four vintages with below average yields. Spring was dry and led into
a very mild, dry summer with no disease, resulting in fruit with higher natural acidity, and incredible flavour and colour concentration. A dry, warm and windy start to January, however, resulted in one of the worst bushfires in the Adelaide Hills in living memory, though well away from our Adelaide Hills vineyards. By the end of the first week, relief came with 60-75mm of rain and a record-breaking coolest January in 11 years. With the onset of veraison at the end of January, the rain was perfectly timed for the old dry-grown vineyards, and the mild weather that followed from February through to April provided for a fairytale vintage.

An attractive nose of frangipani and jasmine florals, white currant, honeysuckle and passionfruit, with an underlying note of tropical fruit and gooseberry.

The palate is intense and focused, displaying pure tropical flavours, white currants, grapefruit, gooseberry and white florals, with a slatey, mineral balance and a long fine, crisp finish.

Pale straw with lime green hues.

KINGFISH CEVICHE SALAD |

***Ingredients***:

- 750g sashimi grade fresh kingfish
- 1 cucumber, quartered lengthways, deseeded and thinly sliced
- 1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ red onion, sliced paper thin
- 200g baby rocket
- 2 bunches watercress
- 1 bunch basil
- 6 fresh limes
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
- black pepper

***Method***:

- If it hasn’t been done by the fish monger, cut out the blood line that runs along the length of the fish, where the spine usually is. If you do not remove this, the dish will become bitter.
- Take the fish and place it flat on the board. Using a sharp knife, run the knife along the length of skin until you totally remove the skin. Make sure the knife is ‘tight’ or flush on the board to avoid taking off too much of the flesh.
- Finely slice the fish into thin slices across the fillet, no more than 1mm thick and place it into a bowl.
- Squeeze the lime juice all over the fish, season with sea salt and pepper and mix through with extra virgin olive oil.
- Place the cherry tomatoes, red onion, baby rocket, watercress and basil in the bowl and mix through.
- Serve with crusty bread.

***Serves 4.***

Fermented in tank and bottled post-vintage (no oak or tank maturation) to preserve the wine’s aromatic fruit characters.

Most of our white varieties were in before Easter, moving on to the Adelaide Hills red varieties soon after, and eventually winding down at the end of April as the rain and cooler temperatures set in. The 2015 vintage has provided classic Adelaide Hills expressions of riesling, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc that show extraordinary flavour, purity of fruit and acid balance with the potential for excellent ageing.