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Viticultural & vinification notes		Winemakers comments
Vintage conditions	A generally good Margaret River vintage with moderate temperatures throughout though late season rains presented some issues.	Colour  Nose   Palate	Red with a red hue. An attractive aroma of black olive, licorice, black jube, sour cherry and forest floor with a note of eucalyptus and dried herb. A medium weight wine with intense sweet fruit displaying flavours of sour cherry, red fruit and black olive with notes of game and earth.. The palate is defined by powerful mouth coating tannins that are fine and slightly chalky with great flavour persistence. This wine is distinctly savoury and a perfect match for Mediterranean food. .
Vineyard	Three Hills, Karridale Hand pruned to rods Hand picked
Grape variety	100% Sangiovese
Maturation	12 months in 4 year old French oak barriques.
Wine analysis	Alc/Vol:         14.0% Acidity:           5.8g/l pH:                 3.57 Residual sugar:0.1g/l

Sangiovese is an Italian variety that is the backbone for Chianti. Sangiovese is the #1 varietal in Italy with 247,000 acres, 10% of the entire wine grape crop. The hot, dry climate, such as Tuscany provides, is where Sangiovese thrives. Because these climatic criteria generally enhance quantity, rather than quality, it takes careful cultivation and winemaking techniques to produce really excellent wine from this grape.

We find it tends to crop generously and produce thin wines unless the fruit is thinned and well ripened in a favourable year.  When it all comes together we release the wine under the Three Hills label at cellar door. The first Three Hills vintage (2004) was a ripper and it simply walked out the door. The experience has confirmed for us the basic proposition that consumers never fail to identify a really top notch wine

The flavour profile of Sangiovese is fruity, with moderate to high natural acidity and generally a medium-body ranging from firm and elegant to assertive and robust and a finish that can tend towards bitterness. The aroma is generally not as assertive and easily identifiable as Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, but can have a strawberry, blueberry, faintly floral, violet or plummy character.

James Halliday: Rating: 91 Drink 2015 $36 Date Tasted Jan 11

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