2021 Vanguardist 'Rende'

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OLD BUSH VINE GRENACHE FARMED ORGANICALLY BY ROBERT RENDE AND VANGUARDIST
The ‘Rende’ Grenache is a single barrel select, produced only in the finest of vintages. 2021 is the second release of this microbatch wine.
The Rende vineyard is situated in the northernmost and high altitude (250m) area of Blewitt Springs on unconsolidated sands. Vines are not irrigated due to their ability to penetrate the sand/silt-loam top soil and access water from the clay base found underneath, which provide good water holding capacity.
Michael and Robert Rende have found many pockets of maritime shells and deposits throughout the property over the past decades.

VITICULTURE AND VINIFICATION
Vintage 2021 will surely go down in history as one of the greats for many regions in South Australia. This is especially true for Grenache in Blewitt Springs. Abundant sunshine without extreme heat, and moderate rainfall led to near perfect ripening conditions.
This single barrel came from a 900kg ferment from the third of four picks (23 March) in 2021. This happened to be in the Charlie quadrant, an area that has continually provided some of the finest fruit on the vineyard. 2/3 whole bunch was applied, and was uncrushed in the bottom of the fermenter, with the destemmed portion of whole berries on top. Spontaneous ferment and post ferment maceration lasted five weeks, prior to gentle and long vertical basket pressing.
Elevage took place in a seasoned French oak Demi-muid of 600L for a total of 16 months.
The wine was carefully decanted and bottled without fining or filtration.

751 bottles produced + 12 magnums
Closure: DIAM Origine 10 49x24.2mm
FSO2: at bottling 27ppm
TSO2: 58ppm
pH: 3.47
TA: 6.0g/L
Alcohol: 14.1%