Kaesler Old Bastard (2007)

Single vineyard wine made from fruit sourced from our 1893 block of Shiraz, yielding less than 2 tonne to the acre, hand pruned and picked.

The rainfall during the growing season wasn’t that huge but it fell at the right time. It’s a pleasure to write about harvest 2006, things were normal then. Budburst was reliable, the crop set, we all had Christmas, then we came back to work, prepared for the ensuing vintage then made some nice wine during an orderly harvest.

Once opened, and when it’s young, this wine exhibits soy sauce, vegemite, mandarin rind and flowers. After a few hours with air, and more suggestive of its future, it leans slowly towards dark chocolate embedded with black ripe yet still sour cherries. After 5 hours or more, small berried fruit, black and red start streaming though, vanilla lift adds a nice topping and ethereal afterglow.