Vineyard
Fruit sourced from our 38 year old Wyjup vineyard growing 30 km south of Mt Barker in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The vines had their cordons cut one month before harvest allowing the fruit to shrivel and concentrate sugars and flavours.
Vintage Comments
A promising start to the season with useful rains and mild conditions from spring to early summer which allowed for good vine growth. A dry February and March then allowed flavours to intensify in a relatively disease and pestilence free environment. Apart from a handful of very hot days around Christmas, mild to warm days were the norm during veraison though there were a few typically chilly days scattered throughout the growing season.
The fruit ripened steadily but surely under the ideal conditions, till third week in March when the cordons were cut. The fine conditions prevailed until the 15th April when we hand picked the fruit just the day before the first autumn rains.
The fruit was harvested at 29.5 brix, 6.5 g/L acid and a pH of 3.38 fruit was sound with a small amount of botrytis but largely shriveled.
Winemaking
The thinking behind this wine was to produce something of the essence of Riesling, concentrated, wildly varietal, but fresh and racy. It all came down to the fruit as the winemaking was simply to preserve the elements of the fruit through anaerobic, cold handling and quick processing into bottle in mid July.
Tasting Notes
Colour:
Pale straw with green hues
Aroma:
Vibrant and sassy with honeyed, lemon, apple aromas and a dash of mineral and orange blossom.
Palate:
Deliciously round and poised with well gauged sweetness and a degree of acidity that melds into the wine providing focus with a non-cloying, clean sorbet like finish and a lasting impression of citrus fruit flavours. Reminiscent of ice wine.
Technical Details
Alcohol: 10.2 %v/v
Acidity: 9.9 g/L
pH: 3.04
Residual Sugar: 116 g/L
