Our first ever Vintage of El Desperado was 2011, and will always be known in Australian wine history as the vintage from hell, as many vineyards succumb to the wet summer. For the Pawn, we sacrificed making our full range of wines that year to create a brand new style wine. Although we did not set out to make the El Desperado before that vintage, when you taste this wine, by hell you will be glad we did.

A blend of grapes from our Langhorne Creek vineyards, we have taken the finest characteristics, and handcrafted a full bodied wine that can be both a drink now style or cellar nicely for the medium term.

There is lifted raspberry, cola and pomegranate, with  a bright balanced acidity on the palate, infused with a generous earthiness with ripe plum and blackcurrants and the quotidian soft, long tannins.

Specifications

• Variety trivia: As the crow flies its only 20 kms between these blocks, but the Hills fruit brings lifted raspberry, cola and pomegranate, with a bright balanced acidity on the palate, while the Creek fruit infuses a generous earthiness with ripe plum and blackcurrants and the quotidian soft, long tannins.
• Chess Trivia: In chess, El Desperado is a doomed pawn that seems determined to give itself up to bring about a stalemate when captured, a pawn that is as good as dead and so sets out to do as much damage as possible.
• Goes best with: Lamb Roast with Tom Cruise
• Label Trivia: Blending was once seen by some as the poorer by-product of winemaking, but is now used to create wines which are greater than the sum of all parts. The blend of regions is something hidden by the corporate world, the lesser known regions often shunned from the label entirely.
  Here I have blended Tempranillo from several blocks, but have very distinct regional attributes.
  It's always the most rewarding part of blending, when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• Harvest Date: From 1st March to 26th March 2023 - Langhorne Creek Tempranillo
• Vineyard Location: Langhorne Creek, South Australia,
  -35.2963, 139.0383
• Harvest Weight: 7.5 tonnes/hectare
• Alcohol: 14.5%
• pH: 3.4
• T.A.: 6.63