The Barossa Valley is known as red wine country and for good reason and
we’re rightly proud of the pleasure our reds give to people everywhere. But
we are also proud of the white wines that we produce. Look back in the
history books just a generation or so and you will see that the Barossa was
all about white wines, making top class Rieslings, Semillons and
Chardonnays. We still do all that but we’re now seeing some new varieties
in the mix with exotic names like Vermentino, Fiano, Rousanne and Marsanne
coming to the fore.
We planted Marsanne on our vineyard in 2013 and harvested our first crop
from it this year. We were super excited and the young vines did a grand
job producing a small but powerfully aromatic and complex crop of grapes.
We decided to put it through our little basket press in order to extract
only the cleanest, softest free run juice. This juice was then fermented in
3 barrels of seasoned French oak and 1 new French barrel. This gave a
lovely, fresh and vibrant wine which was then lees stirred for 6 months to
give some flesh and body to the palate. We bottled the resulting wine last
month and are loving the results. As the warm weather finally looks like it
will chase away the rain I’m certainly looking forward to a chilled glass or
two of 2016 Basket Press Marsanne to end the day(s)!
Cheers, Alex