Robin Brockett has been chief winemaker at Scotchmans Hill since the 1980s, he knows Bellarine's best growers and is completely conversant with every microclime around the greater Geelong. Amphora is the
Tete de Cuvee, the top cut of Shiraz from the most superior vineyards, a cull so strict, that only a hundred cases are made. Its dulcetly sweet perfumes of peppery plum are unlocked by a measure of the fragrant Viognier, underpinned by silky chocoate tannins, lingering on a velvet length of raspberries, rose petal and turkish delight.
Vinified in two large terracotta Amphoras, imported from the Brunello producing commune of Montalcino Tuscany. These old world clay vessels are essential to the balance, texture and integrity of the finished wine. Shiraz and Viognier grapes are all hand picked off the most superior rows at Fenwick Vineyard, a portion are added to the ferments as whole bunches. Several days of cold soak are followed by three weeks of wild indigenous yeast vinification, hand plunged daily until completion, a course of malolactic and eight months age on gross sediments, pressed and returned to the Tuscan Amphorae for the balance of a year's maturation.
TASTING NOTES