NOTES

2008 - Winery of the Year - James Halliday
2007 - Wine of the Year - Jeremy Oliver
2006 - Qantas/Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year

Among his many pursuits, Doug Balnaves was a shearer of Merino sheep. A shearer in Australia is paid by the number of sheep he shears. Counted every two hour period, the Tally is recorded in the Tally book. The higher the Tally, the greater the recognition among his peers for skill and hard work. As an expression of this tradition, the Balnaves family sees the wine 'The Tally' as the ultimate achievement for their company.

Fruit was taken from our Dead Morris vineyard (66%) and Walker vineyards (34%) with 64% receiving a long maceration on skins. Maturation was for 20 months in new fine-grained barrels from Seguin Moreau, Sylvain, Saury and St Martin cooperages, before light egg fining and bottling in March 2008 under Procork.

TASTING NOTES

Deep rich red in colour, the nose shows fine charry vanillin oak with rich dark berry blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, with a perfumed violet note. The palate is rich and round with black liquorice fruit flavours and a finer tannin structure characteristic of the 2006 vintage. As with all releases of the Tally, it is the harmony and balance of this wine which are its outstanding features.

OTHER REVIEWS

“Beautifully crafted and delineated cassis fruit, framed by gently toasty oak and some floral notes; the palate is rich, deep, fine and very long; the brightness of the fruit at the core is the essence of this wine. 96 Points, James Halliday – Australian Wine Companion 2009

A huge wine flooded with Cassis, blackberry and raspberry fruit, a liberal application of complex oak offering toast, cedar, spice, nougat and play-doh with additional characters of black liquorice, mint and a few violets just poking their heads above the surface. It’s full bodied with enormous extract and flavour, dense and brooding with a big spread of chalky tannin and extreme length of flavour. A powerhouse that needs at least a decade of cellaring. 95 Points, Gary Walsh, Winorama – July 2008