The Wines
The wine-making process reflects our core decision to hand manage the vineyards and to let the fruit be the product of each season.
Individual treatment of each vine in order to optimise its potential is the first step. The juice from this fruit and each step of the winemaking process is assessed on the merits of the juice, not a pre-determined commercial wine style.
While aiming for consistency of quality is paramount, and a certain degree of consistency of style, we are open to making winemaking decisions which allow the seasonal variations to show, and to allow the best potential of the fruit to be nurtured.
Loan Semillon
We believe there is something special about the flavours from the dry grown Semillon – so deep, intense, with natural sugar/acid balance – the high fruitiness and floral characters balanced by a crisp acidity on the palate.
Our use of wood (old French Barriques) is intended to bring out the real character of the wine, balance the fruit content, give it palate roundness and protect the wine’s aging potential while maintaining the freshness of the fruit. Usually the wine is only aged in oak for 6-10 months to achieve this. There are a couple of vintages where we have also bottled our Semillon straight from the tank, unwooded, allowing the wine to develop on it’s own, over time, in the bottle.
We only release our Semillon for sale after aging in our Cellars for at least one year in bottle. For us, it’s all about patience. The fruit speaks when it is ready.
Current Vintages:
Loan Shiraz
We wanted to capture the real Barossa Shiraz flavours that only come from dry grown vines. Our fruit is pure and intense, concentrated and luscious, with a depth that will evolve and express itself further with bottle age.
Our use of wood is intended to balance the tremendous fruit, flavours, and tannins in order to create a wine worthy of both drinking and aging. The use of American hogsheads helps us to achieve this. For how long and whether new barrels or new heads are used is dependent on the fruit from that season.
We only release our Shiraz for sale after aging in our Cellars for at least one year in bottle.
Current Vintages:
2006 Loan Shiraz
2006 Loan Creek Flat Shiraz
2005 Loan Shiraz
2004 Loan Shiraz
2003 Loan Shiraz
2002 Loan Shiraz
2001 Front Block Shiraz
Loan Raven’s Rosé
While we are committed to aging our Semillon and Shiraz, we also wanted to capture the beauty and freshness of the season for drinking now.
The Alicante Bouschet grape is the perfect variety for making a Rose which speaks of the harvest. Only the free run juice is used for it’s vibrant colour and flavour, creating a truly single estate style of Rose which is a celebration of our terroir and the vintage.
