2008 The Last Ditch

Artist Rod Emmerson ©

Click here for large view

Harvest Date:13 March to 6 April
Oak Maturation:  Approximately six months in five to 20 year and older old French and American oak barriques.
Alcohol by Vol:13.5%
Titratable Acid: 7.3 g/L
pH: 3.15
Bottling Date: 2 October 2008
Chief Winemaker Chester d’Arenberg Osborn

Other Vintages

"The 2008 The Last Ditch Viognier was aged in seasoned French and American oak for 6 months. It offers appealing aromas of mineral, peach, and apricot and lead to a creamy-textured, concentrated, intense Viognier with a lengthy finish. Drink it over the next 1-2 years."

The Last Ditch Viognier is named after the McLaren Vale vineyard from which the fruit is sourced which lies at the bottom of a gully in a big ditch. This site was originally inhabited by a bland variety from which Sherry is made called Doradillo, but was re-planted with Viognier, which is anything but bland, in 1995.

A brilliant green tinged gold appearance. The nose is generous and expressive with citrus such as grapefruit and lime evident alongside apricot stones, ginger, peach blossom and a subtle background of preserved lemons and honey.

The palate is tightly structured and youthful with apricot, peach blossom, lime and orange peel initially present. As the wine opens up a wonderful honey character shows itself with candied ginger nuances. Nutmeg and cinnamon linger with a long finish.

Although drinking well now, great structure and good natural acidity suggests this wine will age well over the next three to five years with the varietal apricot characters becoming more prominent.

2008 was a fabulous vintage for white wines in McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills due to sufficient winter rains and cool conditions for most of the ripening period.

The winter rain ensured the soil reached filled capacity and set the vines up perfectly. A normal spring and an unseasonably cool January and February meant the vines remained stress free and flavour ripeness was achieved at reasonably low sugar levels and high levels of natural acidity.

The McLaren Vale fruit was picked during the cool February conditions. A run of hot days in early March helped ripen the cool climate vineyards of the Adelaide Hills.

Full fermentation with near full solids in old oak was long and moderately cool to retain fruit characters. Only the free-run juice was used for the final wine without any malolactic fermentation.

Fermentation was undertaken in five to 20 year old mainly French barriques. Only the subtlest of oak characters are evident on the palate due to the age of the oak.

Leave your own tasting note

First Name*

Email (for administration purposes only - not published)*

Vintage*

Comment*


Enter the value of the maths quiz: