Seppelt Benno Bendigo Shiraz 2003
The wine is named Benno Bendigo Shiraz in honour of Benno Seppelt's belief in Victoria as a wine growing region.
Regional Source: Bendigo
Vintage Conditions: A dry vintage meant growers had to carefully maintain the water supply to the vines. Low rainfall and cool conditions in 2002 meant the fruitfulness of buds was low. The resulting small crops and good autumn conditions meant that the vines ripened quickly with no stress, providing as Winemaker, Arthur O'Connor, reported, "fruit with intense colour, concentrated flavours and fine-grained tannins."
Maturation: This wine was matured for 18 months in French oak barriques, 30% of which were new with the remainder one, two and three years old.
Dark red. The nose shows complex fruit aromas of cherry and bramble. Complex cherry fruits follow from the nose onto an earthy mid palate of amazing complexity, finesse and density. The Seppelt Benno Bendigo Shiraz has a big backbone of natural, talc like tannin that will carry the wine long into the future. Arthur O'Connor
A superb, distinctive Bendigo shiraz, whose lightly meaty and floral perfume of black plums, cassis, briary red cherries and raspberries is supported by sweet chocolate/vanilla oak. Long and savoury, its deep, densely packed flavours of cherries and plums are framed by a firm tannin/acid balance before finishing with lingering sour cherry flavours. It’s robust yet pliant, wonderfully rich yet very stylish. (Bendigo, $55 retail, approx., release 2005, 19.0/96, drink 2015-2023+) Jeremy Oliver
"New wine. Named after Benno Seppelt, a pioneer of Victorian wine. Made from 100% Bendigo fruit – though unlike just about any Bendigo wine you’ve yet seen. Profiled by weighty cherries and chalk, with low oak, a juicy cherry plum liveliness, five spice and cedar – and no detectable mintiness. Perfectly made wine, to be released in September 2005. It’s beautiful. Drink 2006- 2015. 93 points." Campbell Mattinson – Winefront Monthly February 2005
It (St. Peters) will sit alongside a new, fractionally cheaper, 2003 Bendigo Shiraz, with more chocolatey, black cherry, maraschino cherry fruit and fine grained but persistent tannins. In both instances, the wines unambiguously reflect their terroir, and have very different tones. Beckoning are two more wines, each to be sourced from the best blocks of Seppelt estate plantings in the Pyrenees and Heathcote regions." James Halliday – The Weekend Australian, Saturday 11th June 2005
The Bendigo region has a long history with wine, the first plants being planted in 1858 during the gold rush period. The Europeans brought with them a lust for gold along with wine and food knowledge from Europe that infiltrated through the local community and helped build the reputation of the region as a wine growing community. Sadly, phylloxera decimated the region in the 1890s and the region as we now know it did not emerge again until the late 1960s. The Bendigo region is marginally warmer than the Grampians and Pyrenees, and cooler than Heathcote during the vines growing season. Winter minimum temperatures are generally colder than these other regions but the winter days see more sun, and therefore more daytime temperatures. The Seppelt Benno Bendigo Shiraz is sourced from the area West of the City of Bendigo, which we feel
is significantly different from the fruit sourced East of the city of Bendigo, the area known as Heathcote. The vineyards are located on the alluvial river plains and red and brown earths. The main characteristics of Shiraz from Bendigo are intense fruit driven wine with plum and intense cherry like characteristics.
A dry vintage meant growers had to carefully maintain the water supply to the vines. Low rainfall and cool conditions in 2002 meant the fruitfulness of buds was low. Difficult, windy conditions inhibited crop levels and harvesting commenced two weeks later than usual in mid March. The resulting yields were small but the good autumn conditions meant that the vines ripened quickly with no stress. Seppelt winemakers reported that ‘the highlight of the 2003 vintage was shiraz, which has produced wines with intense colours, a complex flavour profile of dark berries and pepper, silky tannins and excellent acidity’.
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