Our wine.

Our love of Italian wine varietals and again, the challenge to test the norm for expected varietals grown within the Margaret River region continues to inspire us to make this wine with a rare parcel of Nebbiolo fruit from Wilyabrup. As Nebbiolo is a more ‘terroir-expressive’ variety we were excited to showcase the earth, soil and climate characteristics of a Margaret River Nebbiolo as opposed to subscribing to the classical view of what a Nebbiolo should be based on Italian benchmarks.

This is a rare expression of Margaret River Nebbiolo due to the relative scarcity of the variety within the region and our aim was to showcase the high-toned brightness and vibrancy of fruit whilst still integrating complexity and interest through structure and developed tannins to create an earlier, approachable Nebbiolo thoughtfully balanced with sweetness, savouriness and ultimately freshness.

2022 in Margaret River was a great vintage and proved once again that even years are great vintages in Margaret River! Things took a while to kick off with a cool, wintery spring and significant rainfall in October delaying the onset of budburst and flowering in the vineyards. Flowering and fruit sets were on the lighter side resulting in slightly lower yields dues to the spring conditions over the growing season and the one prior.

Summer was influenced by another La Niña season – beautifully dry, warm, sunny days right through December, January and February which lessened the disease pressure that was experienced with the wet and humid conditions of the previous vintage. Veraison was delayed by around a month, but the consistent heat saw a rapid ripening period in the whites, and the dry weather allowed for predictable ripening patterns across most varieties which made for a very organised and well-planned vintage.

Bird pressure was also low this vintage with perfectly timed Marri blossom which provided enough of a distraction to keep the silvereyes busy. The only challenge in the vineyard was the scorching Christmas heat wave resulting in some sunburn on some exposed white bunches which lowered the crop when they were dropped off prior to harvest.

Yields were much lower than expected in the Nebbiolo, also influenced by the very dry conditions – especially for the vineyards which are dry grown which took a hit with lower bunch weights and smaller berries. The grapes for our Nebbiolo are sourced from a single vineyard positioned in the warmer and drier Margaret River sub-region of Wilyabrup, where the vines consistently achieve ripe, flavoursome fruit. The Nebbiolo vines were planted in 2004 and historically are known to act similarly to olive trees where they throw off good yields every second year. Unfortunately 2022 was not one of those better yielding years.  The fruit was carefully hand harvested on the last day in March.

On the whole, our general take on vintage 2022 is that wines will be characterised by intense aromatics, plush concentrated fruit, great structure and depth of flavour driven by good natural acidity. Even with the warmer conditions, the delicacy and elegancy wasn’t compromised. A stunningly epic vintage.

The hand harvested grapes were destemmed and gently crushed into an open top stainless steel fermenter where they stayed on skins for 10 days with gentle hand plunging twice daily before being pressed to old large format French Oak for maturation. The wine was then matured in barrel for twelve months before being prepared for bottling.

In a glass the wine presents with lightly and transparently as one would expect from Nebbiolo.

The nose is lively and aromatic with pretty floral notes of violet and roses along with some deeper, more ruggedly mineral and dry toned characters of bitter chocolate and tar.

This wine has a distinguished character, like you would expect from a Nebbiolo, however we have aimed to capture a freshness, which showcases bright fruit amongst the nervy acidity and slightly restrained, but ever so present balanced tannins.