Kay Brothers Hillside Shiraz 2022
Our methods may be old fashioned, but at Kay Brothers we are proud to make McLaren Vale wines that truly express their terroir. The aim in the winery is to do whatever we can to preserve the amazing flavours and characters nature provides in the vineyard. To achieve this, we strive to be as gentle as possible from harvest all the way through to the original open fermenters, hand plunging and our heritage 1928 basket press.
This is the 26th release of Hillside Shiraz, known as a quintessential McLaren Vale shiraz.
‘Hillside’ is the name the Kay family gave to the first vineyard they planted on the eastern-facing slope of their McLaren Vale property. All of the Shiraz vines in the Hillside vineyard today were grown from cuttings of the vines planted by Bert and Fred Kay in 1892.
We select parcels of fruit from our Hillside vineyard to assemble the best blend possible. Block 11, located at the top of the hill, has shallow sandy loam soil over limestone and sandstone. These vines are very exposed to the wind and sun. As a consequence, the vines mature earlier in most years and tend to be low yielding, with intense fruit concentration and powerful tannins. The rest of the Hillside Shiraz is located farther down the hill, in New Block 6, where dark chocolate loam and clay soil dispersed with quartz and ironstone over silty limestone. The New Block 6 component provides the finesse and elegance to the overall blend with savoury flavours and tight structure. The blend of these two vineyards is a perfect balance.
Alluring aromas of dark fruits, musk, dried herbs followed by smokey, earthy notes.
The palate is dense and concentrated with layers of rich dark fruits, black olive tapenade and chocolate. Supported by gritty textured tannins lingering on the finish.
