Unlike Block 6, the Hillside Shiraz allows Kay Brothers to pick various parcels of fruit so as to assemble the best blend possible. Block 11, located at the top of the hill, has shallow sandy loam soil over limestone and sandstone. These vines are very exposed to the wind and sun. As a consequence, the vines mature earlier in most years and tend to be low yielding, with intense fruit concentration and powerful tannins. The rest of the Hillside Shiraz is located farther down the hill, in New Block 6, where dark chocolate loam and clay soil dispersed with quartz and ironstone over silty limestone. The New Block 6 component provides the finesse and elegance to the overall blend with savoury flavours and tight structure. The blend of these two vineyards balances each other extremely well.

The growing season for vintage 2019 was consistently dry across autumn, winter, spring, and summer. This ultimately kept crop levels below average. Veraison was late to commence, but came on quickly once the warm weather arrived. Despite the warm start to summer in February, we experienced mild temperatures and cold nights which allowed the vines to come back into balance after the previous months of water and wind stress. The first week of March was warm but after this, the weather pattern returned to dry mild days and cold nights, perfect for flavour development and natural acid retention in the grape berries.

Harvested on the 5th and 7th of March. The grapes were crushed, de-stemmed and plunged twice daily while spending 10 days on skins in our traditional open fermenters. The wine was then basket pressed and matured for 22 months in American and French oak. Bottling took place in May 2021.