2006 The Footbolt

© Alan Moir

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"Sometimes the hearty, traditional reds of d’Arenberg, McLaren Vale are a tad too ‘rustic’ for fans of the sqeaky-clean modern Australian reds, but aficionados wouldn’t have them any other way. The Footbolt has dark berry, spice and earth characters in a medium-bodied, smooth, persistent package, finished with ripe, smooth tannins."

d’Arenberg has been making this wine since the winery was built in 1927. It was first labelled as Shiraz, before being renamed to ‘Old Vine Shiraz’ in the 1980’s and in doing so was the first wine to take on the name ‘Old Vine’. In 1996 the name was changed again to honour the racehorse that changed the Osborn family forever. The founder of d’Arenberg, Joseph Osborn was a successful racehorse owner and Footbolt was the pride of his stable. In 1912 he made the hard decision to sell the stables and the horses to start d’Arenberg, so it is only fitting we pay homage to Joseph and his prize horse Footbolt.

A dark, exciting looking wine with a cherry red hue. Plenty of intense fruit characters are present on the first sniff with a mix of dark red fruits, black olive and beef stock notes. As it opens characters of blueberries, black cherry, dark plums, liquorice mocha evolve with an array of spices and tamarin notes mixed with a slight savoury dried herb edge becoming evident.

The palate shows great balance and complexity with an emphasis on blueberry, mulberry red stone fruits such as plums and cherries. The mocha character from the nose carries through to the palate along with spices and a hint of white pepper on the finish. The oak is nicely integrated and the tannins are smooth and lingering. The length and intensity of flavour is a great attribute of this wine. As always The Footbolt is a very approachable wine in its youth but we see this wine having the capacity to age for many years.

The quality of Shiraz from vintage 2006 was excellent as fruit characters were noticeably fragrant with good acidity and excellent length.

Average winter rain followed by heavy rains in spring resulted in vines with healthy, balanced canopies. A mild, early summer leading into a warmer period during veraison stopped vegetative growth allowing vines to channel energy into the fruit. A prolonged cool period occurred in February with some rain which enabled the fruit to ripen without stress. The warmth returned in March with cool evening temperatures to complete ripening in almost perfect conditions, enhancing fruit flavour and richness without diluting levels of natural acidity. Picking was staggered with many parcels picked in wonderful autumn conditions.

Each batch of fruit received is crushed in our gentle Demoisy open-mouthed, rubber-toothed crusher so as much of the berries as possible remain whole. The must is then transferred to our open fermenters where the seeds and skins are permanently submerged beneath the free run juice. The must receives no plunging or pumping over while the juice is fermenting on its skins for up to 14 days. Prior to the ferment reaching 3° beaume the must is foot-trod in the fermenter before being basket pressed. Primary fermentation is completed in barrel where the wine undergoes its malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged partially on its solids with no racking until blending.

None of our reds such as The Footbolt undertake any filtration or finning prior to bottling.