1997 Noon Winery Eclipse Grenache Shiraz 750ml

Grapes sourced from McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek.

Producer tasting notes: "An unusually high percentage of Langhorne Creek Shiraz and Cabernet this year due to the challenges of a harvest heatwave. We bottled a small trial lot with screw caps and we can now compare the cork sealed vine with a screw capped one. Tasted June 2019. This was interesting. The cork finished bottle appeared to be a good example, with good level and little wine travel evident on the cork. It tasted good, showing some matring characters alongside robust ripe fruit. It is a generously proportioned wine, with nice old-vine depth and appears to show the increased Shiraz component this year in its more robust frame." - Noon Winery

Drinking Window: 2000 - 2019

Noon Eclipse is predominantly Grenache (80%+) with smaller proportions of Shiraz and Graciano. The grapes come from the three Noon ‘home’ vineyards in McLaren Vale. The grapes are hand-picked and fermented in small, open vats with hand-plunging to help extract colour and tannins.

"We produce generous, full-bodied wines from old vines growing is a warm climate. They are best consumed with equally flavoursome food"
- Drew Noon

Pressing is also by hand, using a basket press, followed by 18 months’ maturation in a combination of used 300-litre French and American oak barrels and larger oak casks. Eclipse may be high in alcohol as a result of Noon’s desire to harvest grapes when fully ripe and not to interfere with what the vineyard and the season has provided. Annual production is between 700 and 800 dozen.