Winemaking
Quality wine is made in the vineyard, so we put a great deal of effort into the production of premium quality fruit. In the winery we handle the fruit/wine gently, with minimal post-fermentation pumping, racking or filtering to preserve delicate flavours. Winemakers’ interventions are kept to a minimum.
The Riesling fruit is gently whole bunch pressed (unusual for Australia), yielding 450 litres/tonne. The juice is cool fermented in refrigerated tanks using cultured yeast to ensure the purity and intensity of flavours are retained in the finished wine. The wine is bottled 6 to 8 weeks after harvest then held for 4 months before release.
The Rosé is made from free-run Shiraz juice from the crusher (i.e. not pressed). It has a component of barrel fermentation, spontaneous/wild yeast and frequent lees stirring, and a component of cool tank fermentation (cultured yeast) to retain pure fruit aromas. The wine is bottled 6 to 8 weeks after harvest then held for 4 months before release.
With our red wines we follow a more traditional approach. They are spontaneously/wild fermented separately by variety and by block in small open fermenters (500 to 1500 litres) with regular foot-treading, plunging and pumping over of the cap. Depending on variety and style, there may be post-fermentation maceration of 7-21 days prior to pressing. Red wines are matured in 300 litre ‘hogsheads’ (90% French Oak, 10% French coopered American Oak) supplied exclusively by the French cooper Saury. Barrel maturation time varies according to variety and style from 14 to 24 months.