The Wine

“Viburno”, the flagship wine of the Poderi Crisci Estate label is a fine blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Montepulciano. Traditionally the fruit is harvested from our Northern Merlot block, just above the “House Block” and our Southern Merlot both of which were tasting fantastic at time of harvest. The Cabernet Franc, picked from a parcel at the top of the vineyard offers a beautiful fragrant aspect and the Montepulciano delivers a fine spice and silken tannins.

The Vineyard

A warmer growing season than the previous year with excellent fruitset which led to quite heavy fruit thinning throughout. Given the thick fruit set we were able to harvest between 1 ½ – 2 Bottles of wine per wine, without sacrificing the concentration or compromising the quality of the fruit.

The Winery

The harvest for the fruit for the Viburno 2013 was realised around 3 weeks earlier than in 2012 due to the warmer growing season. The Merlot was harvested, as always by hand, on the 21^st of March, and the Montepulciano on the 2^nd of April. All the fruit was in beautiful condition and little sorting was needed but undertaken as per usual during the picking and sorting prior to destemming and crushing into open stainless steel vats. Fermentation in these same vats at between 26° and 29° using natural wild yeast over a 16 to 17 day period, followed by  a period of maceration on the skins prior to being basket pressed into oak barriques (30% new barriques) and into the underground cellar for a 17 Month period. Following this period of malolactic maceration, the wine was racked off the lees and the three components left to “mingle” for a further month prior to bottling on estate.

 The 2013 produced our largest harvest of Viburno to date and we produced a total of 26 Barrels.

Tasting Notes

 A rich and full flavoured wine running through a spectrum of black fruits, blackberry and mulberry with some nice spice and cigar box on the nose. The terroir come through nicely with warm and earthy notes. A palate displays rich and full fruit which is densely woven into the velvety tannins structure and has great cellaring potential.