Lethbridge Indra Shiraz 2018

Ray and Maree name their reserve wines after their four children: Indra, Allegra, Mietta and Hugo. The fruit for the Indra Shiraz comes from the low-yielding Block 3 on the Lethbridge home vineyard in the Moorabool Valley. The vines are rooted in distinctive black clay, basalt and limestone soils. Though the cool, wet start to the 2018 season gave rise to some concern early on, come November, things had dried out and warmed up. The rest of the season played out as “one of the most pleasurable” Ray has witnessed in decades.

The fruit was picked by hand and fermented spontaneously in open-top vessels with 80% whole bunches. After a long, cool ferment and extended time on skins, the wine matured in new wood for 15 months, followed by more than three years resting in bottle before release. Jeni Port’s note below captures the wine’s nature nicely, though we might have added a point or three to the score! It’s a fabulous wine.