Spirit of Marlborough 2015 - Library Wine

While Marlborough basked under blue skies throughout summer, the fruit on the vines was developing into something magical. Week after week of warm, dry weather followed on from a cooler than average start to the season. The long warm ripening season ended in a beautiful Indian summer perfect for these Bordeaux varieties. We hand-picked perfect physiologically ripe grapes at a low yield of 700g/vine.

Perfectly healthy, destemmed grapes allowed for a long cold soak to extract the superb flavours and beneficial antioxidants of the skins. I then let the must naturally progress through a long wild yeast fermentation and extended post maceration. After gentle pressing, the young wine was transferred into partly new French Barriques where it underwent the second natural malolactic fermentation. The minimal oxygen exchange over a long 30 months of maturation in the same barrels made all the difference. The wine and wood had time to marry together to form a richer, more complex and textured wine, able to age for many years in the bottle. We like you to enjoy this stately flagship wine at its full potential, very much like a “Grand Cru” Pomerol with many years of bottle ageing. And so we did, under perfect condition in our barrel hall for a further 3 years but without the hefty price tag! No fining. No filtration. Natural goodness.

The 2015’s sweetness and velvety tannins are present in abundance and the wine is massive in the mouth as well as incredibly pure and well-delineated. Blackberries, damson plums and black currants scents let this wine sing in full harmony! Hints of spices and cedar add to the great length. Perfect to drink now, but one which will make a great addition to a wine lovers cellar. Tasted July 2020.

All our wines are dry and never over extracted. Sommeliers love them for their ability to easily match with many different dishes and foods. If you want to put a label on it, they are lovely with hearty dishes like a fine roast, grilled meat, cheese. But to be honest, this wine is a celebration in itself...