Rufus Stone property in McLaren Vale yields intensely flavoured Shiraz with deep colours and perfect natural acidity. The fruit is always clean, well ripened and in good health. Shiraz is harvested, crushed and chilled on site amongst the Willunga vines before being transported to the Tyrrell wineworks in Hunter Valley. The transport provides an opportune vessel for doing the pre-ferment cold soak which extracts colour and flavour from grapes. Following twelve days of ferment in small five and ten tonnes vessels, Rufus Stone is pressed into a selection of new and prior use, predominantly 225L American oak barriques, for completion of malolactic, assemblage and twenty months maturation.