The high altitude reaches of Polish Hill in the Clare Valley are renowned for Riesling and Shiraz, but not for a variety such as Zinfandel that begs for heat. This will not show up on the Master Sommelier blind tasting exam for sure! The early picked, organically farmed Zinfandel is akin to drinking a cherry coke on a hot summer day. Koen wanted to harness the fruit intensity by using a large proportion of stems, given how green they were. ‘Mirrors’ is ‘reflective’ of this being the antithesis of the norms for Zinfandel.
The bunches were handpicked and primarily destemmed, leaving a fifth whole-cluster. The whole bunches were placed at the bottom of a single stainless fermenter with the individual berries on top. The fermentation kicked off without any crushing of the fruit after three days and then gentle hand plunging ensued for an additional five days. The wine was racked to a single old, 300L French barrel where it finished fermentation and maturation. After six months it was racked to tank, hit with a 24ppm sulfur addition and bottled without fining or filtration.