The 2024 season threw up a little bit of everything! It began with a lovely dry and relatively calm November leading to good flowering and fruitset for the vines. The dry start was quickly replaced by one of the wettest December and January periods we have seen with 282mm of rain falling over these two months. With the soils brimming with water, the vines green and with plenty of vegetative growth, we slipped into the driest February and March we have experienced, with a mere 10mm of rain falling. The large canopies coupled with the hot and somewhat late summer powered the beautiful bunches through to ripeness with harvest coming early and finishing fast—completed in a two and a half week period across the whole vineyard.

Very pale luminescent green color and brilliant in the glass. The wine opens up with a nose that is intensely floral with lifted citrus, citrus blossom, lemon zest, wet stones and sea spray. The palate is equally intense with a focussed core of lemon and lime, lemon curd, crunchy white peach and pithy grapefruit followed by hints of oyster shell and a fine slatey line. All is framed by delicate spicy oak and driven by fine talcy acidity.

Picked in the cool of the morning across on 21st, 27th and 28th February (a blend of Mendoza and I10V1 clones), the fruit was placed in the cool room overnight to maintain berry turgor and freshness and then pressed cold the following morning. The juice spent 24 hours in tank and was then transferred to barrel with full solids for primary fermentation. Partial MLF was undertaken and the wine spent 5 months in new (15%) and used oak before blending with full solids into tank. The wine was bottled on August 14th, 2024.

Try with Oysters natural and lemon rounds.