CRANSWICK ESTATE Merlot 2014
CRANSWICK ESTATE Merlot 2014. Founded by Graham Cranswick Smith, the wines take their cue from his family name, thought to derive from the Crane’s Wyke (the village of cranes) in Yorkshire as recorded in the medieval Domesday Book. The Cranswick wines are expertly crafted to reflect the very best of Australia’s winemaking heritage. Offering a three tier range of classic wines designed to be superb examples of Australian varietals from carefully selected vineyards in New South Wales and South Australia, the Sarus range being sourced from the Barossa.
Harvested frrom mature vineyards of 19 years old. The vines are trained to a single cordon with a single foliage wire. Vines are drip irrigated on clay loam soils. The 2014 vintage offered ideal ripening conditions with cool nights and mild summer days, this resulted in fruit of exceptional quality.
The must is cold soaked prior to fermentation to allow maximum extraction of flavours from the berry skins. The ferment takes place in stainless steel static fermenters with the skin cap irrigated automatically. Wine is then pressed onto French oak staves and undergoes through malolactic fermentation on oak to help extract more integrated oak flavours and tannin. The resultant wine remained on oak for 6 months prior to bottling.
