Most of McLaren Vale's soils are impregnated with ancient, decomposed laterite granite known as ironstone. The larger pieces were cleared from vineyards in the late 1880s and utilized in many of the buildings at d'Arenberg. Small batches of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourverdre are separately passed through a rubber toothed crusher into open fermenters. Some parcels are tread by foot two thirds of the way through. When tannin extraction is just right, the wines are basket pressed into oak for the completion of ferments and malolactic. Components are matured on lees in a combination of seasoned and new French oak barriques before assembling into the final wine.