SINGLE FORRESTON VINEYARD AT HIGH ALTITUDE, STEMMY AND SPICY

I’ve been working with Barossa fruit for over twenty years now, I love it but sometimes I can get bored doing the same thing. A few years ago I found myself drinking lighter and more savoury wines at home and thought it was time to jump in the car and see what was up the road in the hills.

Having spent a few harvests at high altitude in the USA’s Sierra Nevada foothills I was mostly after a vineyard that had a decent enough slope to drain the warm air and high enough to be able to pick when the sugars hadn’t bolted. After several years cruising the hills ands working with fruit from Lobethal and Morialta, I came across a little pinot vineyard in the sub region of Forreston. At 440m and sloping to the south west it fitted the bill and it is right next to apple and cherry orchards - you wouldn’t see that on the hot flats of the Barossa!

Stalky tannins and savoury wines float my boat, so 50% of the whole bunches went into the fermenter and then plunged the ferment over several weeks. I’m not a big new oak kind of guy but found a new French puncheon that was lightly toasted - it added a bit of freshness rather than charry nuttiness. After pressing I filled this up with a few older barriques and let it sit on lees for a bit over a year.

So, it sounds pretty fancy - high altitude, single vineyard, 50% new oak - but simply I love drinking it and hope you will too.

TECHNICAL STUFF

VINEYARD:

• Forreston, Adelaide Hills.

• 440 metres altitude, south west facing slope

• Loam overlying brown clays.

WINEMAKING:

• Hand harvested,

• 50% whole cluster with foot treading in an open fermenter

• Plunged over 15 days

• Wild yeasts

• Aged in a new 500l puncheon and seasoned barriques for fifteen months

• No fining or filtration.

654 bottles produced

Bottled 11th July 2022