Attollo Quinta 2012

Attollo Quinta is predominantly a blend of the Portuguese varieties Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cao.  In Portugal, these varieties were historically  used in Port production, however more recently Portuguese winemakers have taken these and other Port[uguese] varieties from the terraced vineyards on the steep slopes of the Duoro Valley in Portugal and started making high quality table wines that exude sense of place, rusticity and authenticity.  The Attollo Quinta is a reflection of this style utilising Margaret River fruit.

Attollo Quinta 2012  was made from fruit grown in the Yallingup subregion [Dunsborough Ridge] from old gnarled vines growing in deep gravel loams on a gentle north slope overlooking the Geographe Bay.  The fruit was allowed to get very ripe and picked at the break of the season.  2012 was a perfect year, with a lovely fruitful spring and a warm to hot summer and a long dry autumn providing for ideal ripening conditions.  This vineyard is unirrigated and shows beautiful balance, grown using a modified Lyre trellis and cane pruning.  The Touriga and Tinta Cao were hand picked on 23rd of April 2012.

0.5t of Touriga Nacional and 0.5t of Tinta Cao were chilled for 48 hours before being gently destemmed and conveyed to open fermenters, where they were cold soaked for 4-7 days.  After this time the must was allowed to warm up and they were seeded with a yeast isolated from a Quinta [winery] in Portugal.  The ferments were plunged twice daily initially and then only once per day until baume dryness.  They were then basket pressed to old French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation.  Once malolactic fermentation was complete, some sulphur was added and the wine was left on lees for 6 months to mature.  At this point the tanins had softened and the wines were gravity transferred to stainless steel drums for maturation for a period of an additional 8 months.  The wines were then blended by gravity and returned to the stainless steel drums for several months to stabilise before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.  This wine has had minimal inputs and will generally have a very low acidity and a moderate to high alcohol as part of this “Quinta” style.

pH 3.9

Titrateable Acidity [TA] 5g/L

Residual Sugar [RS] 0.1g/L

Volatile Acidity [VA] 0.45g/l

Alcohol 15.8%

Cases Bottled  February 2013

500L

100 6 pack screw cap

Cellaring Best

Best 2014-7, Maximum 2021

Taste [10/5/14]

The wine has taken several years of experimentation to come to fruition.

Vibrant floral liquered fruit characters come to the fore, however varietal herb and tar characters are also evident in the background.  The wine is deliberately full bodied and strongly flavoured, with pronounced fine savoury tannins affording a dry rustic finish.  Over time in the glass this wine opens up with suprising luscious sweet fruit flavours and late back palate length.  It really comes to the fore when enjoyed with food with a suitably high flavour intensity.