2007 The Money Spider

Artist: Glen Ford ©

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Harvest Dates:
8th to 21st February
Oak Maturation:
A small proportion was aged in French Oak Barriques.
pH:
3.44
Alcohol by Vol:
13.5%
Glucose + Fructose:
3.6g/L
Titratable Acid:
6.5g/l
Bottling Date:
16 August 2007
Chief Winemaker:
Chester d’Arenberg Osborn 
Senior Winemaker:
Jack Walton

Other Vintages

‘Pyrazine, broad bean, Sauvignon Blanc-like aromas with some hints of honey, toast and nectarine. A dry and complex palate with lots of fruit and good overall balance. ‘

The first crop of Roussanne from the 2000 vintage was found to be covered in a sea of tiny “Money Spiders” (Erigoninae). Popular belief is that kindness to these active little creatures will bring good luck, hopefully in the form of money. Being nature-lovers and slightly superstitious to boot, we refrained from sending the spiders to their death and hence were not able to release our first Roussanne until the 2001 vintage by which time the “Money Spiders” had learned their lesson and moved from the vineyard to the bushland surrounding the winery.

In its youth, The Money Spider Roussanne has a brilliant clear to mid-straw appearance with a lifted ripe herbal aromatic mix of flowery notes such as jasmine, lilies and cut grass. As the wine opens up floral spiced fruit notes evolve mixed with characters of anise, wheat germ and pistachio’s and an underlying mix of melon nectarine and ripe apple. As the wine opens up there are edges of green tea and feijoa and further grassy herbaceous notes.

The palate is youthful, bold and nicely balanced with plenty of ripe fruit characters. Upon entry it’s a mix of dried herb and almonds with notes of intense glazed citric notes such as cumquat, blood orange, and marmalade notes then fragrant green fruits such as feijoas with spices. The finish is dry with lingering mineral notes, green olive honeysuckle notes and balanced with fine acidity.

2007 will be remembered as the earliest start to vintage ever
due to extreme drought conditions not seen since 1959 and the
most frustrating. Overall winter rainfalls were a third of what
we normally receive however the quality of the vintage held up but yields were tiny.
With extremely dry conditions and cold spring temperatures leading up to the growing season, the vines produced very short shoot length which resulted in reduced bunch size and  weights due to reduced berry size.
As vintage was to commence we experienced a 50mm downpour which created considerable fruit splitting on many of our dry grown vineyards, including Roussanne, which reduced yields further. This rain with all its associated issues saved the vintage as it set the early vines for a stress free ripening which produced grapes with great acidity.

Picked at a slightly higher Beaume to enhance the stone fruit characters, the fermentation period was long and moderately cool to retain fruit characters.
Only free-run juice was used for the final wine and no induced malolactic fermentation was undertaken.