The remarkable old vines that bear fruit for this wine were originally shipped from France to Glenrowan back in the late 1800s. It astounds us still, that having survived the rough sea voyage and having flourished through the 20th and now 21st centuries, this vineyard continues to provide us with such high-quality fruit of rich flavour intensity. The wine’s namesake, Perseverance, should now be quite evident.

 The vineyard has been dry grown since the day it was planted; completely left to the whims of nature and representing a true and unique reflection of Australia’s wine history. In respect, we approach winemaking with the sensibilities of yesteryear, with no desire to bring too much modernity to these historic vines.

Much like 2021, the 2022 growing season was influenced by the La Nina weather pattern, very mild temperatures and consistent rains; just about perfect for this ancient dry land. Without any stress, the vines were able to plod along at their own pace, gradually ripening the grapes to a comfortable level around two weeks later than we would normally see. We watched and waited and saw the whole thing come together (vitality, flavour and concentration) at 14 Baumé. Yields were average for this vineyard, but average for this vineyard is remarkably low at around 800kg/acre when gaps are accounted for.  We harvested 1.7T from the original block and excitingly we got our first look at the grapes from the “Thoona” Block of the vineyard.

These vines are the same age as the original block however the restoration of this block on commenced in 2020, prior to that the vines were been held on life support. 1.3T was harvested from the Thoona Block in 2022; the vines are still settling in after a serious haircut and retraining onto a trellis wire. The wine produced was a promising prelude to what is to come although finer boned and more delicate in style than the original block that was restored back in 2009. Only one Puncheon of the Thoona block made the grade to find its way into the final Perseverance blend in 2022 although we expect as the vineyard settles more will be worthy of going into this our most special of wines.

Grapes from this vineyard are always the first into the winery, which any winemaker will tell you is a rather peculiar thing given that it’s Shiraz. Our theory is that this old vineyard knows what it’s up to and doesn’t waste any time messing around – it’s had 130 years to figure it out after all.

The grapes were chilled overnight and then gently destemmed, but not crushed, to retain whole berries. The fruit from each block was transferred separate open fermenters, around 10% whole bunch was placed on top of the Original Block Ferment. Interestingly, this vineyard is interplanted with the white variety Ugni Blanc, 2% of which we co-fermented with the Shiraz.

Once processed, a 48-hour cold soak was undertaken before we allowed the fruit to warm slowly. Once it reached above 15c, we inoculated the both ferments with a carefully chosen and well proven cultured yeast. We kept the ferment relatively cool, only allowing it to rise to 29c. We also only lightly hand plunged as to not over extract tannin.

We tasted and plunged daily, and saw continual improvements through to day 18 when we decided it was time to gently basket press into our finest French oak, Maturation took place in our temperature-controlled barrel room for 18 months on full lees to build texture..

 Unfined, vegan friendly, gently filtered, and hand bottled onsite July, 2023.

Learn more about the story of this amazing vineyard through the Dulcies 1890 Vinyard link at the top of the page.

This wine is currently on prerelease for exclusive purchase by our INNER SANC|TUM Wine Club Members until the general public release on the 15th of November.

Get up to a 15% discount and free freight when you join the INNER SANC|TUM WINE CLUB. Find out more of the benefits and how to join through the link at the top of the page.