Noon Eclipse

Noon Eclipse

The vines which produce this wine surround the house and the furthest are 500m from it, so they are very familiar in all their seasonal guises. 

The wine we produce from them reflects this vineyard and our region. Noon Eclipse is produced predominately from Grenache (80%+), with smaller components of Shiraz and Graciano.

It can be enjoyed as a young wine or cellared and consumed as a more complex and gentle older wine at 10 years plus. We find most vintages show the first signs of maturity at about 4-5 years and then go through a period during which they show aspects of both youth and maturity before developing from about 10 years of age into a gentle, fully mature wine.

Experience suggests that it is best to decant this wine prior to serving to release the flavours.

Note that there was no 2009 Noon Eclipse produced due to the drought and heat wave leading up to this harvest.

Food matching suggestions
Noon Eclipse is best served with richly flavoured foods. It is not a wine for sipping over a light summer salad lunch. It is more suited to an Autumn or Winter’s evening with some richly flavoured fare based around chorizo sausage, anchovies, olives etc.; think along the lines of hearty Mediterranean food.

The stage of maturity of the wine also has an influence on the best food pairing. As a young wine (say from 1 to 4 years) choose quite strongly flavoured more complex dishes such as wild hare or duck in richly sauced casseroles. As an older wine choose robust dishes but served simply, with minimal adornment such as char grilled steak with chips or roast chicken. For tasting notes on individual vintages of this wine click on ‘tasting notes’ above.

Varietal composition
Grenache (80-90%), Shiraz (10-15%) and Graciano (5-10%); all estate grown.

Winemaking
Noon Eclipse is usually quite high in alcohol because it is produced from Grenache grapes from low yielding vines. We do not set out with the aim of making a wine of high (or low) alcohol. Our desire rather is to harvest fully ripe fruit which best express the flavour of the grapes and the site.

Noon Eclipse is matured in seasoned 300 litre French and American oak barrels and large (Foudre and demi-muid sized) oak casks for 18 months.

The grapes are picked by hand and fermentation takes place in small open vats with manual pigeage, to help extract colour and tannins. Pressing is also done by hand, using manual basket presses which are gentle and do not extract too much bitterness or astringency.

Very little is added or taken away by modern winemaking technology. We prefer to take a minimalist approach, believing that this will deliver a wine which genuinely reflects the grapes and the site.

Noon Eclipse is grown, made and bottled on the estate.

For more information on the winery go to http://noonwinery.com.au/home.html

To see our other Noon wines go to https://www.auswinesonline.co.uk/product-category/noon/