Peter Lehmann | The Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz

Deep crimson in colour with red and purple hues. Lifted chocolate, vanilla, dark fruits and a touch of Christmas cake on the nose. Soft, supple and silky tannins, the wine is abundant in rich dark blue fruits with a lovely mouth-filling generosity. Gentle beading and delicate, soft mousse make the palate luscious. A brooding, savoury dark chocolate backbone of flavour balances with sweet perfumed oak notes, leading to a great length of blackberry jam and satsuma plum conserve. The fruit sweetness is apparent, but balanced by the complexity of fruit-weight and time spent on tirage before disgorgement.

Sourced from four long-term growers of premium Shiraz; Schrapel, Hampel, Gladigau, and Grope, planted in the Ebenezer and Light Pass districts. Fruit for the Black Queen is selected based on a silky tannin profile and sweet red berry fruit expression. Fermented on skins for 10 days, pressed, clarified, and then matured for 12 months in older French oak hogsheads. The base wine was then bottle-fermented and aged on its yeast lees for 36 months. After disgorgement, a small percentage of The King Vintage Port was used as expedition liqueur to build complexity and enhance the rich Christmas cake fruit characters.

This wine can be enjoyed at multiple times of day- accompanied at breakfast by a bacon and egg roll doused in tomato sauce- at lunchtime with Turkey and cranberry sauce, or dessert time with a dark and creamy chocolate mousse or brownies and whipped cream.