Viticulture

Located on a Northern facing slope, the vineyard receives the full day’s sun. Dry grown, the vines have developed deep roots into the layered mineral soils that lie beneath the rich limestone of the hill. The cooler climate is accentuated by the elevation of the vineyard, and especially felt in the low night time temperatures that create an ideal diurnal temperature range for ripening fruit and respiring vines. These factors produce a very low disease pressure scenario - even in more trying years, allowing us to implement a minimal interference in the vineyard.

The 2023 season was a challenging climatic year, but one that suited the white varieties very well as the environmental stress it produced saw the vines focus their energies into producing grapes. A cool summer induced a late flowering, giving the vines fresh from their dormancy to focus energies into producing full and dense leaf canopies. This was critical as once the berries were produced later in the season the warm weather was beginning. The additional shading of the canopy combated the heat of the sun and allowed the grapes to develop their flavours in step with the accumulation of sugar ripeness. Repeated grape sampling over the two weeks prior resulted in the decision to pick the vineyard on the 19th March just before dawn. In darkness the harvester was escorted along the rows and the picked bunches were delivered to the winery in gondolas, where they were loaded into the awaiting press.

Specifics
Location – Armagh; Clare Valley; South Australia      Elevation – 380 meters
Average Vine Age – 33 years      Soil – Limestone      Dry Grown

Winemaking

Delivered to the winery in the early morning, bunches were checked and loaded into a de-stemmer. The grapes were passed through a chiller to snap chill the berries as they were loaded into a small enclosed press. Under inert gas coverage, the initial draining was allowed to occur naturally solely from the weight of the grapes on-top of each other. Once this draining had occurred, the press was activated to its softest possible pressure to crack the berries. Once again the juice was allowed to natural drain and was collected. This bright first juice was held separately. The juice was chilled to 4 degrees and allowed to settle naturally, clarifying over 48 hours. Once clear, the clean juice was rack from the top of the juice lees into a closed stainless steel fermenter where it was allowed to warm as commence fermentation. Once the fermentation was underway, the ferments temperature was regulated low to retain as much of the highly aromatic compounds in the wine. Sixteen days after first fermentation was noticed, the wine completed its fermentation to dryness. The wine was then remain on its fermentation lees and was battonaged for a couple of weeks. Once the ideal texture had developed, the wine was chilled to below 0 degrees and allowed to sit for a few week to cold stabilize – allowing the precipitation of the excess natural acid. The wine was clarified through traditional methods before being racked clean and filtered.

Technical
Alcohol – 11.5%     Residual Sugar – 0.3 g/L     Acidity – 7.5 g/L
Fermented & matured in Stainless Steel - Bottled 23rd August 2023

Sensory
Bright and clear, the wine holds a faint pale straw colour that has a fine green tinge to the hue.

After pouring, the soft aromas immediately fill the glass. Aromas of dehydrated orange and freshly picked grapefruit skin are underpinned by subtle perfumed white blossoms notes.

The soft citrus flavours that mimic the aroma are layered with by soft lime flavour that is carried by green apple acidity. This acidity flows long through the centre of the palate and is complimented by crisp minerality with slate flavours and chalk acidity. This characteristic is naturally occurring from the layered limestone soils of the vineyard.

This dry yet full bodied style of Riesling is finely balanced with the natural phenolics from the grape; softening the layered and mouth filling structural acidity. The wine while intense in flavour is quite dry on the palate with a long salivating finish that leaves the palate clean and ready for more.

Serving

This wine should be slightly chilled and allowed to warm in the drinker’s glass. This will allow the wine to truly blossom and provided the drinker full experience of the variety and its evolution over the course of a bottle. This wine has been crafted by the winemaker in the mind of serving while it is young and fresh- however, with the ideal growing season and layers of finely balanced acidity in the wine, this wine will mature well for another 5 to 7 years.

Tasted by Pete & Tom
Tasted on 28nd August 2023

TOPE – Wine for today, tonight and tomorrow.