Ministry of Clouds Mencía 2023

Planted into the ancient rocks of their vineyard - The Chase - high on the northern boundary of McLaren Vale, Mencía revels in the thin and mean soils limiting yield and ripening early to retain bright acid.  Deliberately crop thinned to reduce yield further, and hand-picked over two separate days to retain delicacy. The final blend contains 29% whole-bunch with the balance lightly de-stemmed to whole-berries, and cold soaked for 3 days to capture aromatics. Made up of four very separate treatments including a carbonic macerated parcel, whole bunch ranging from 0 to 100%, and time on skins ranging from 2-3 weeks in the hopes of building gentle complexity before basket pressing to old French oak vessels for maturation.