Snake & Herring Tainted Love Tempranillo Rosé 2018

Snake & Herring Tainted Love Tempranillo Rosé 2018 We wanted to make European Rose: dry, savoury textured, refreshing and great with food. In typical S H fashion a great opportunity arose, this time from a disaster. In October 2014 the Frankland region was subjected to a vicious hailstorm which destroyed a large component of the developing crop. The young shoots were soft and inflourescences were forming; damage was at 100% on many affected vineyards. Certainly this one was. The 2015 Tainted Love Rose was so good we have now added it to the portfolio fulltime. The 2018 season was perfect for a parcel of Margaret River Tempranillo. This fruit matched our Rose criteria and was picked at 12.3Be for freshness and savoury tannins. The fruit was handpicked and crushed to the press, with 1 hour on skins to develop colour and a light tannin structure. We pressed to tank then ran the whole juice to old puncheons for a wild ferment. After 5 months on lees we bottled the first Tempranillo Rose. The 2018 Tainted Rose is the most interesting and structured rose we have made. This year’s colour I like to describe as pomegranate seed. It has sour cherry, subtle white flowers, gingernuts and fresh sea kelp. Texturally the 2018 is more structured with a floury, talc-like tannin backbone and crisp acid matching the creamy weight. A great food wine suited to spice and heat, try a Lamb Korma.