Cellar Door

Pharos (linking our wine to the lighthouse logo and back to the original lighthouse built off the coast of Alexandria) is the premium red wine from Brick Bay, produced only in those years deemed worthy; in 2006 we made a limited release of just 220 cases. The best parcels of red Bordeaux fruit from our vineyard are aged in new French oak barriques to produce this flagship wine.

In the Vineyard
Following a mild winter and early budburst, the season was warm and dry, apart from the odd ‘weather event’! Fortunately the vineyard is largely protected from any north-east weather patterns that can surprise us over the summer. Our viticultural team worked hard stripping off leaves around each bunch to allow sunlight penetration, and by removing fruit that lagged behind the ripening profile each variety, only perfect bunches were allowed to continue ripening on the vine. Because of our commitment to harvesting fruit with great flavour intensity, we know our cropping levels must be kept low.

In the Winery
Each of the 5 varieties was destemmed and crushed separately into small open-top fermenters. A selected yeast instigated fermentation, with the rising ‘cap’ of skins initially hand-plunged four times daily. As alcoholic fermentation proceeded, the plunging regime was decreased to avoid over-extraction. After a period of post-fermentation maceration to add structure and balance, the wine was racked, the skins gently pressed, settled, then aged in new French oak barriques. Different coopers and forest origins were utilized to optimize the potential of each grape varietal. Following 10 months aging in new oak, selected barriques were blended together. The wine was then bottled without fining, and bottle-aged for a further 3 years before release.

Harvest date: 21^st March – 20^th April 2006
Bottling date: 23 March 2007
Composition: 30% Malbec 23% Cabernet Franc 21.5% Cabernet Sauvignon 21.5% Merlot 4% Petit Verdot
Alcohol: 12.5%

TA: 6.28 

pH: 3.5