Louis Latour Agencies

“Five star vintage” for Wakefield

08 June 2018

The 2018 vintage from Wakefield looks set to be one of the best with Head Winemaker Adam Eggins heard to whisper “vintage of a century” with regards to Shiraz.

Mitchell Taylor, grandson of the founder and current head of the company says “we are very excited about the quality of the classic varieties from this vintage. In terms of the whites, Chardonnay and Riesling, the generally cool season leading up to harvest has brought about lower alcohol levels and at the same time, lower yields delivering highly aromatic wines with very pure and distinct varietal characters. It’s one of those terrific ‘win-win’ situations.

“When it comes to the reds, Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz, at this early stage, the colours and flavour concentrations in the young reds are the best we have seen in a long time and the general consensus is that it’s looking like one of the best red vintages of the past decade; for Shiraz in particular, possibly the past century”.

Vintage report from Cherry Stowman, Brand Ambassador:

“…Now, to say our winemaking team are excited about the quality of the wines from this vintage might just be an understatement! 

In terms of the white varieties, the generally cool season leading up to harvest has brought about lower baumes which translates into lower alcohol levels and at the same time, there were lower yields (fruit crop levels) which has delivered these highly aromatic wines with very pure and distinct varietal characters…

When it comes to the reds… our chief winemaker has been making some bold ‘early calls’ and the rest of the team are certainly backing him up on those. The general consensus is that it’s looking like one of the best red vintages of the past decade and in terms of Shiraz in particular, maybe the past century! 

But enough about Shiraz! There’s some high quality Cabernet Sauvignon fruit ‘locked up’ in the Perle (French oak) barrels that I’m particularly interested in. The wine is undergoing extended skin contact…The tannin profile on those wines is sure to be bordering on the sublime by the time we get to taste them…”