Vintage

 

Wines Available

Rumball SB18 Sparkling Shiraz
This is the Rumball house style of NV Sparkling Red. SB18 Sparkling Shiraz is made from Coonawarra Shiraz. Coonawarra is one of the premium grapegrowing regions of South Australia. The "SB" represents the Sparkling Blend Number and is my way of recording each tirage (blend). SB4 was the first release in 1988.

The Sparkling Shiraz is elegant with full fruit and strong Shiraz varietal character. It has a soft, smooth palate and is a great wine to complement fully flavoured foods. The Coonawarra Shiraz gives the palate a long fruit finish with a roundness and depth to the middle palate. Try this wine with roast duck, kangaroo, buffalo and quail. Or as an alternative, with strong cheeses such as Stilton, Blue Vein or Parmesan.

SB18 Sparkling Shiraz is ready to drink now, but could be cellared for two to three years. Cellaring will add bottle age to the wine and give another dimension. When cellaring, lay the bottles down in a cool place that has little temperature fluctuation. This will help the cork to stay moist and protect the pressure seal on the bottle.

Sizes:
1.) 750ml size bottles available all year.
2.) 375ml halves size bottles available most of the year..
3.) 1.5L Magnums (double bottles); not available at present.
4.) 3.0L Jeroboams (double magnums) in a lovely gift box available now

 



Rumball M3 Sparkling Merlot

This is the third Rumball NV Sparkling Merlot. M3 Sparkling Merlot is made from 100% Coonawarra Merlot. It was sourced from the Hotel Paddock North and Julia Hill vineyards at Coonawarra in the South East of South Australia. Coonawarra is a premium cool climate grapegrowing region of Australia , and the area contributes to the intense floral nose the Merlot.

The softness and violet character of the merlot fruit shows through on the palate and the finish is well balanced. The palate shows raspberry and blueberry characters with a lovelly soft finish. The basewine receives only minimal oak storage, to ensure the lovely floral characters are not lost.

This wine recently won the Best Sparkling Red in the 2006 Boutique Winemakers of Australia Wine Show.
Try this wine with medium flavoured foods - Barbeque lamb, Deep fried Turkey or Duck;
and soft cheeses such as White Castella or Brie
.
I am sure you will enjoy my third cuvee of Rumball Sparkling Merlot.
Serve it Cold; and its ready to drink now!

Size: Only 750ml size bottles available all year.

 

1997 Rumball Vintage Sparkling Shiraz - now released.


The Rumball Vintage Sparkling Shiraz has been made from 100% Coonawarra Shiraz. The best base wines are set aside each year for a small vintage tiraging.

The grapes for the vintage wine come from a single vintage (as versus the non-vintage wine about which may have some cross vintage wine in the base blend) and so the vintage may vary from year to year and reflect the climate differences of the vineyard. The wine naturally has a strong varietal Shiraz character with a big fruit and tannin finish. The first of the vintage Show Sparkling Shiraz is from the 1997 Vintage, with a wine made from each of the vintages 1997,1998,1999,2000,2002, 2003,2004,2005. No vintage wine was made in 2001..see below. The Vintage Sparkling Shiraz has been cellared so that a fully mature Sparkling Red wine can be released for your enjoyment in a few years. To give you an indication, the 1997 Vintage is the first of the vintage wines and is not likely to be released until around end year 2006, so don't get too excited yet! Thereafter there will be one vintage wine released every year. ( except 2010). The Vintage Sparkling Shiraz wines are also the main wines entered in Australian Wine Shows.


1997 Vintage
The 1997 Shiraz growing season at Coonawarra began with ideal conditions, However November was very windy during flower set resulting in a reduction of berries.,Hot weather in February followed by a slow and gentle ripening of the grapes resulted in a reduced crop. But the berries were smaller, deep coloured and the quality was excellent.
The grapes for the 1997 vintage came from Dohnt's vineyard at Coonawarra. The wine was tiraged on 11th March 1998.
Cowra Wine Show 1999: Bronze Medal: Class 61/5
Perth Wine Show 1999: Silver Medal: Class 61.
Rutherglen Wine Show 1999: Bronze Medal Class 59/1
Sydney Wine Show 2000: Bronze Medal Class 39/9
Melbourne Wine Show 2000: Bronze Medal Class 76/14
Perth Wine Show 2000: Bronze Medal Class 61/3
Sydney Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 38/13
Perth Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 63/8
Sydney Wine Show 2002: Bronze Medal Class 38/2
Brisbane Wine Show 2002: Bronze Medal Class 56/4
Melbourne Wine Show 2003: Bronze Medal Class 63/22
Brisbane Wine Show 2004: Highest Gold Medal Class 59/11
Perth Wine Show 2004: Silver Medal Class 55/9
Adelaide Wine Show 2004: Bronze Medal Class 55/12
Brisbane Wine Show 2005: Highest Gold Medal Class 68/15
Adelaide Wine Show 2005: Bronze Medal Class 57/8
Melbourne Wine Show 2006: Gold Medal, National Wine Cellars Trophy. Class 75/8
Perth Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 56/2
Adelaide Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 59/6
National Wine Show 2006: Gold Medal, Keith Treadwell Trophy Class 47/6
Melbourne Wine Show 2007: Gold Medal, Kilchurn Wines Trophy. Class 79/21

1998 Vintage
Growing season 1998 was a wonderful time in Coonawarra. Good rains in winter, ideal flower set and cool even temperatures in late summer made for the perfect growing season. The Shiraz base wines showed great depth of fruit character, good colour and structure. The grapes for the 1998 vintage came from Dohnt's vineyard at Coonawarra. The wine was tiraged on 10th November 1998. This should be a great vintage wine, and certainly my pleasure to have made it.
Melbourne Wine Show 2000: Bronze Medal Class 76/13
Perth Wine Show 2000: Bronze Medal Class 63/7
Sydney Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 38/3
Cowra Wine Show 2001: Silver Medal Class 36/4
Melbourne Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 68/8
Perth Wine Show 2001: Silver Medal Class 63/9
Sydney Wine Show 2002: Bronze Medal Class 38/3
Melbourne Wine Show 2002: Bronze Medal Class 68/2
Brisbane Wine Show 2002: Silver Medal Class 56/18
Melbourne Wine Show 2003: Bronze Medal Class 63/16
Brisbane Wine Show 2004: Bronze Medal Class 59/9
Adelaide Wine Show 2004: Bronze Medal Class 55/10
Perth Wine Show 2005: Bronze Medal Class 55/13
Melbourne Wine Show 2006: Silver Medal, Class 75/22
National Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 47/1
Melbourne Wine Show 2007: Bronze Medal, Class 79/13

1999 Vintage
Growing season 1999 was almost as good as the 1998 season. Good rains in winter followed by warm and even summer gave good flower set and even ripening. It was only marred by some small rain and hail in early March, but this was followed by drying winds. Cropping levels were slightly lower than average, ensuring good quality. Vintage 1999 was made once again from Dohnt's vineyard at Coonawarra. This made the best cuvee fro the year. The wine was tiraged on 11th November 1999.
Perth Wine Show 2000: Silver Medal Class 61/7
Sydney Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 38/8
Cowra Wine Show 2001: Bronze Medal Class 36/1
Melbourne Wine Show 2001: Silver Medal Class 68/19
Brisbane Wine Show 2002: Bronze Medal Class 56/16
Melbourne Wine Show 2003: Bronze Medal Class 63/26
Adelaide Wine Show 2004: Bronze Medal Class 55/8.
Melbourne Wine Show 2006: Silver Medal Class 75/5
National Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 48/8.
Melbourne Wine Show 2007: Bronze Medal Class 79/27

2000 Vintage
Good winter rains and a mild summer at Coonawarra once again led to an overall great 2000 growing season. More than normal warm weather in March 2000 gave early ripeness of the Shiraz, but the natural grape acidity was retained. This resulted in excellent fruit composition and therefore ideally structured basewines, and vintage was some three weeks earlier than normal. The best cuvee once again came from grapes off Dohnt's vineyard at Coonawarra. The wine was tiraged on 7th February 2001. Vintage 2000 wines are result of "three in a row" good seasons.

2001 Vintage - None!
Coonawarra has some occassional shocking years and this was one. Large crops combined with wet weather and wild storms in April 2001 mean cuvees were thin and weak. The very best cuvee which would have been used for the Vintage wine was added back to the Non-Vintage blend to maintain the quality of the house style.

2002 Vintage
The 2002 Coonawarra vintage was the culmination of an excellent season with very high quality wines, but generally lower yields due to a low fruit flowering set. The grape bunches had fewer and smaller berries than normal. Clear skies and warm days in April enabled the fruit to ripen fully whilst maintaining ideal pH and great shiraz characters. This vintage cuvee was elected from Dohnt's vineyard. It was tiraged on 11th December 2002.
Perth Wine Show 2004: Silver Medal Class 53/3
Brisbane Wine Show 2005: Gold Medal Class 68/6
Melbourne Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 75/21

2003 Vintage
Below average rainfall in winter with cool temeperatures during the growing season meant below average yields but good quality for 2003 Vintage. There was 48mm of rain in vintage, but as there was good drying weather following, fruit remained sound. For the rest of vintage the days remained sunny and warm, resulting in the fruit reaching its full maturity. This year the best cuvee came from Kidman's Rackham Ridge vineyard. This vineyard is south east of Penola, on heavy black soil over limestone, but on a ridge of land that receives good airflow. This cuvee was the best of 2003; it was tiraged 29th April 2004.
Melbourne Wine Show 2006: Bronze Medal Class 75/9

2004 Vintage
A large setting of the vines at Coonawarra meant large crops! Some growers reached cropping rates of 6.7 tonnes/acre! My dedicated growers thinned their crops late in the season, yet still managed to get heavy crops. This was compounded by a late heavy rain in March 2004, leading to some mould problems, and still further culling ot fruit. Picking started 16th April 2004 with Kidmans Shiraz. The top Shiraz cuvees were excellent; this vintage wine is the very best of these. This cuvee was made from some 3 year old Shiraz wines of Dohnt's vineyard on 26rd April 2004.. This little area whilst on black soil over limestone has great ability to dry out quickly, thereby remaining disease free and giving top quality small berries. The cuvee was tiraged in May 2005.

2005 Vintage
A smaller crop of Shiraz from a cool, mild growing season gave wines of low yield and intense flavour. Vintage was early this year, with the Shiraz for this wine picked on 2nd April 2005 (Be 15.0, ph 3.88, TA 7.65g/l) The grapes came from a vineyard called Bundalong in the north eastern area of Coonawarra; an area that has red friable loam over limestone. The Shiraz vines were 9 years old at the time. This was the best cuvee of the 2005 season; a cuvee deep in clour and fruit intensity..