Our wine.

The name ‘Arancia’ (translating to orange in Italian) stems directly from the distinct orange-tinged colour achieved from extended skin contact, and also pays homage to the stylistic approach of ‘Ramato’ wines, something we are seeking to achieve with this wine. We choose to make a skin contact white wine each vintage to continue our focus on producing food paired wines and wines which highlight phenolics in a clean style. This style of winemaking can result in fantastic food wines, and highlights qualities of the grapes, terroir and winemaking that non-skin contact white wines sometimes struggle to achieve.

The 2026 Arancia presents in bottle like you would expect of a rosé, a direct result of the red skins on the pinot grigio, however it is an orange wine by definition and it harnesses the savoury elements of the fruit and the minimal intervention winemaking style. The aim this year was to create more of a savoury styled rosé wine with focused phenolics, some lighter tannin grip and an engaging spicey interest.

In a glass this wine presents as a darker, but translucent copper rosé colour. On the nose it offers as a field of wild strawberries with a spicey edge and subtle citrus undertones. The palate presents with a fresh fruit and flower spice, balanced level of phenolics and tannins, and a crunchy acidity on the finish.

The 2026 vintage commenced under classic Bunuru conditions, with warm, dry weather moderated by cooler coastal breezes and evenings creating an ideal lead-in to harvest. The season then followed with a balanced maturation with cool mornings and mild daytime temperatures with a typical range of 15-25 which supported steady, controlled ripening. This textbook ripening weather combined with the lack of any major disruptive weather events and one of the most memorable Marri blossoms on record which eliminated the usual bird pressure to make it one of the notable vintages in our 11 vintage history of South by South West.

The vintage was calm and predictable. Fruit came in clean, balanced and expressive, with picking decisions driven by flavour rather than pressure. For us, working with Italian varieties in the South West, 2026 hit a sweet spot. Natural acidity held beautifully, tannins came in fine and composed, and the wines show a quiet confidence – nothing pushed, nothing forced. The whites lean into tension and detail – citrus, orchard fruit and a saline edge, while the reds are medium bodied, savoury and structured, with that interplay of fruit and earth that feels distinctively ours. 2026 for us is all about purity, drinkability and place. A vintage that speaks softly, but with clarity.

This pinot grigio and pinot bianco fruit is from a single vineyard site in the Eastbrook area of the Pemberton wine region from sauvignon blanc vines planted originally in 2011 and grafted to pinot grigio and pinot bianco in 2016. The vineyard, Pemberly Estate has a number of different blocs of pinot grigio, however the block we purchase fruit from is a E-W orientated rows with a NE aspect and on heavy karri loam soils. The rows in the block we purchase have pinot bianco growing intermingled within the pinot grigio. Every year we do a co-harvest and take it all in one harvest, but prior we work out the % split which changes each vintage. This vintage we saw the highest Pinot Bianco % (15%) we have dealt with and this was something we were very excited about for our ‘Arancia’.

The more moderate, gradual warm up provided for good hang time on vines for all varietals, especially aromatic varietals like pinot grigio and pinot bianco which appreciates a bit of extra hang time to develop some really flavours and phenolics. The fruit was co-harvested on a flower day in the evening on March 5. These two aromatic varieties that make up the Arancia are fresh with lovely natural acidity, perfumed aromatics and display a lovely orchard fruit character from a stunningly epic vintage.

The co-harvested fruit was transferred to a large open fermenter where it underwent a natural ferment. The fruit was gentle hand plunged daily just to wet the cap and it was pressed off skins after 5 days to neural oak to finish primary fermentation and undergo malolactic conversion as well to ensure the safety and integrity of a lower sulphured wine. This wine was blended as well with some pressings of our pinot prigio and was coarsely filtered and bottled in Spring