Lock Stock & Barrel Wines

Heathcote Wine Region, in Central Victoria, has a rapidly growing reputation as a great place to grow Shiraz. The region features a deep strip of rare, red Cambrian soil with excellent moisture retention characteristics, that virtually eliminates the need for irrigation. It is this red soil that gives Heathcote Shiraz its distinctive character. The combination of low rainfall, hot summers and the red Cambrian soil creates a challenging environment in which the Shiraz vines thrive, albeit producing low yields and small berries with intense flavours. One of the impressive features of these wines is their ability to age gracefully. The Hanging Rock Winery Heathcote Shiraz is testament to this. These wines are designed to age, the main focus in the winemaking onset is based around structure of tannin and acid. This along with great strength in fruit and oak stands the wine in great stead for many years to come. It is for this reason that we have matured this wine on your behalf.

In wine producers’ parlance ‘Reserve’ typically means a quantity of wine set aside for special or additional treatment at the hands of the winemaking team. This extra time/effort/cost is, obviously enough, reserved for batches of wine of such quality that the investment of resources is justified.

2001 was an extremely dry season, however we were saved by 4" of rain in January and so avoided stressed vines and associated lower yields. The 2001 Heathcote Shiraz is the fifth release from our ‘Athols Paddock’vineyard and the second release under the Heathcote Shiraz Reserve black label. This vintage continues the high standards of its predecessors, with which we collected two Trophies and forty four Gold Medals. The 2000 vintage won a Trophy and eight Gold Medals in International and Australian wine shows. The 2001 vintage has collected two trophies, four gold medals and five stars in James Halliday’s 2005 Wine Companion.

All the fruit (sourced from Athols Paddock, Colbinabbin Estate & Marton vineyards) is handled separately at every stage of winemaking, right up to the assembly of the final blend. We have absolute control over all components. Our Heathcote fruit is always picked on flavour, and in this aspect of the wine we are aiming for consistency. This is the second vintage to make use of new, ‘steam-bent’, medium toast, American oak barriques that engender a smoother, subtler oak character in the wine, and with less vanillan influences. The wine was matured in this oak for eighteen months. The new oak is subtler, smoother and more integrated, the fruit characters are more prominent. It is a rich, elegant wine, beautifully balanced and with great cellaring potential.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: Very fragrant and vibrant. It exhibits notes of Spice, Nutmeg and Cigar box tones.

Texture: Superb due to softened tannins and rich fruit characters, yet the acid structure makes the wine lively and enticing.

Colour: Deep purple with a plum/ brick red hue.

Palate: Exceptionally well balanced, which translates to a long and satisfying finish.