Limited edition wooden gift box: here

Description: Vibrant colour, lifted fruit aromas of cherry and blackberry, subtle oak notes of vanilla and sweet spice add to this inviting nose. A medium to full bodied textured palate with supple tannins. This elegant and complex Barossa Shiraz shows the flavour and balance that these incredibly old vines give. Craig Stansborough is confident this wine will age gracefully over the next 20-30 years.

5% of the fruit was tipped into a concrete open fermenter with the balance destemmed and lightly crushed (rollers open). Temperatures reached 28C with header boards allowing gentle extraction. After 10 days on skins the fruit was basket pressed and transferred into 42% new French oak (1 x 720lt ) with balance into 1-4 year old French oak puncheons to undergo malo-lactic fermentation. After malo-lactic fermentation SO2 was added to the barrels, the wine was then left on light lees to mature for 8 months before racking. The wine was then transferred back to the same oak and matured for another 9 months. No fining used. As with the cabernet sauvignon, natural cork closure finished with wax.

Vintage: 2021

Grape Variety: Shiraz

Region: Zerk family vineyard, Lyndoch, Barossa Valley

Ancestor vines (equal to or over 125 years of age) inspire the Planta Circa label – literally “planted around the region of” as the exact date of the plantings remains a mystery. Purple Hands believe the cabernet vines are some of the oldest on their roots, still producing fruit today.

The Planta Circa cabernet was first released from the 2013 vintage and received a 97-point rating from James Halliday, which ranked it amongst the top Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the 2016 Halliday Wine Companion.

“This is pure and simple cabernet, elegant, long and finely structured. A great cabernet vintage for this great vineyard.”

James Halliday, published 18 June 2021

The 2021 wines have just been released.

In 2018 the Purple Hands team were delighted to be offered the grenache and shiraz from this fantastic vineyard, enabling them to expand with 2 more single-vineyard Ancestor Vine wines, the shiraz and grenache. Each wine shows what these ancient vines can deliver, varietal fruit characters with complexity and elegance.

The wines are made in small volumes due to the tiny plots and low yields, producing enough fruit to create 100 -150 dozen yearly. Demand outstrips supply and the new releases are eagerly anticipated by those in the know.