Our wine.

After coming off one of the more extended vintages in 2023, vintage 2024 brought us the opposite! 2024 has certainly been the earliest and quickest Margaret River vintage we have been a part of. Fruit was around two to four weeks earlier than a ‘classic Margaret River vintage’ for most varietals due to an unusually warm November and the increasing temperatures and lack of rain through the Summer. Margaret River would normally see on average 94 days being the time from flowing to harvest, however this year on top of the earlier start, the grape maturity was around 10 days less which compounded how early vintage started (and finished)!

The dry conditions kept disease pressure in the vineyard down, however on our vineyards we noticed an increase in weevil activity in these conditions which is very difficult to deal with when you are organically farming, so that has certainly contributed to slightly lower yields across our parcels in addition to smaller berry sizes, smaller bunches, dehydration and some shrivel from being dry grown.

The early start wasn’t a great concern for us as it has timed in with a spectacular Marri blossom which is kept the bird pressure down. In general, harvested fruit had epic concentration with slightly higher sugar levels, but strangely so with great natural acid levels as well keeping it fresh and vibrant. Although record breaking in a number of areas, 2024 was still another solid Margaret River vintage, but with a slightly different story, and those vintage conditions that give us vintage variation is what we love to show in our South by South West wines.

The fruit for our 2024 Margaret River Chardonnay was sourced from two growers within the Yallingup and subregion to build a Chardonnay which shows sub-regional characters. Both parcels of fruit were hand harvested within four days of each other on January 20 and 24. Both parcels were Gingin clone and presented with its typical small bunches with a significant portion of chicken berries to hens which kept the acid levels up and allowed flavours to develop further on the vine. Both vineyards typically yield low, and the significantly higher proportion of chicken to hen berries further reduced the yield – but to the benefit of concentrated quality fruit. These particular fruit parcels has always produced a more pure, mineral expression of the site with a focused acid line, and a sea spray, oyster shell complexity.

The vine age of these two Chardonnay parcels are both over 25 years which is why very little intervention is required so we had the luxury of picking at the optimum time to allow flavour intensity, tannins and sugars to develop with balance and harmony. Both Chardonnay parcels of fruit delivered elegance and freshness with lovely natural acidity, from a stunningly epic vintage.

The hand harvested fruit was refrigerated for 24 hours and cooled down before being whole bunch pressed direct from press to an even mix of new, one year old and two year old French oak barriques and Hogshead barrels for natural fermentation. Both parcels matured in barrel on solids for 9 months with some gentle stirring to build some texture. Some barrels started creeping through MLF prior to winter and were cut off based on taste to provide a very small portion of MLF to further build some texture to this wine. The best barrels from these two parcels were selected in November and blended together and finished in December. The wine was bottled just prior to Christmas.

In a glass the wine presents with a vibrant straw tinged yellow. The nose is flinty with lifted intense varietal characteristics of citrus and stone fruit combined, and complimented by pretty white flowers. The palate expresses a minerally liveliness of stone fruit, with some oyster shell, and saline notes with well-balanced natural acidity and complexity.