Awards and Accolades

94 Points - Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front
"It’s a big wine but the aromatics are fantastic and so too the tannin. This is one with the lot, served a little bit fancy. It tastes of blueberry and blackberry nip, cedarwood, woodsmoke and dark chocolate. There’s a splash of violets too. It’s dark and firm and it rages with flavour. Time will bring better integration of fruit-oak but it seems every bit built for the long haul. A lock-it-up-and-throw-away-the-skeleton-key style."

From the Winery

A deliberately long-aged expression of the cumulative best of our McLaren Vale vineyard site, ‘Skeleton Key’ is cellared and carefully bottle aged before it is unlocked.

Slightly higher elevation means the original Penny’s Hill vineyard enjoys a climate a little cooler than the rest of McLaren Vale. This ensures more consistent temperatures throughout the ripening period, allowing Shiraz to reach optimum ripeness with minimum stress. Penny’s Hill Shiraz benefits demonstrably from a high density, narrow-row layout which sees less crop load per vine than is usual in the region. Detailed canopy management, judicious irrigation and passionate viticultural practices contribute to this outstanding Shiraz.

Individual shiraz blocks from the Penny’s Hill Vineyard site were harvested and vinified separately to best express the variations in terrior. Blocks were harvested during the small window of the 17th- 23rd of February and fruit parcels were fermented on skins in open fermenters for 10 days. Maturation was in the nest French oak barriques, of which 40% were new and remaining 1-3 year old oak. After 18 months, the wine was barrel selected and blended to best showcase the complexities and diversity of the Penny’s Hill Vineyard site.