"90 POINTS. Bright colour, deep; red fruits and thyme, with bay leaf lift, offset by liqueur soaked blackberry; the palate is lively and direct, with fleshy black fruits and chewy tannins in abundance." - James Halliday.
The 2010 Shiraz is vivid ruby / red in colour. On the nose there is berry fruit with hints of spice and aniseed.
The palate exudes ripe strawberry fruit characters with spice and white pepper present.
The wine is well balanced with fine, lingering, chalky tannins on the finish.
Established in 1972 and purchased by the Cumming family in 1989, Water Wheel place an emphasis on producing high quality varietal table wines. Now over 300 acres of vineyards, only estate grown fruit is used in production.
Soil is deep ripped before planting. Vines are spaced at approx one metre, with around 20 buds per vine, and hedged trellised, exposing the grapes to the sun to achieve maximum ripeness. They are cane pruned one year in four followed by three years of spur pruning. All vines are irrigated from the nearby Loddon river with ground level mini sprays. Red wine grapes are planted on heavy clay soil with pieces of limestone present in the soil.
Bendigo Wine Growing Region 150 km. north west of Melbourne. Rainfall 17''(425mm). Whilst it is possible to grow wine grapes with this rainfall we believe that to do so places too much stress on the vines and we therefore irrigate. Vines are hedged trellised, exposing the grapes to the sun to achieve maximum ripeness. Red wine grapes are grown on heavy clay soil and white wine varieties are planted on lighter, better drained soil.
