Our wine.

In a glass the Rosé is a shade of peachy pink. The nose is fresh and bright, with floral and spice scents with a slight citrus hint hidden amongst the aromatics. The natural fruit sweetness of this wine is balanced by some texture and structure and a dash of savoury spice. This is a well-balanced Rosé with some structure and great mouthfeel from the winemaking clarity, with some added palate length and a clean acidity to finish.

The intent as always for our Rosé is to capture the vibe of summer livin’ down south – that uniquely summer feeling of being free and having fun. This vintage sees us return to using Sangiovese fruit for our rosé returning to a lifted red fruit aromatics, a crunchy vibrancy and a savoury edge with some subtle complexities from portions of natural barrel ferment.

The hand harvested fruit was processed in two parcels – one as cooled for 24 hours and whole bunch pressed to neutral oak for barrel ferment and the other parcel was crushed, destemmed and sent through a must chiller to get the fruit nice and cold and then a very modest press cut was made to capture a free run portion which underwent an inoculated with a complementary yeast strain to protect and preserve the aromatics and freshness and fermented in stainless steel. No finings were used and pressings were separated and allocated elsewhere. A crafted proportion of both parcels were blended together and xflow filtered prior to bottling in June.

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, 11 vintages in, 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 Sangiovese leant into tension and detail – sour cherry, crunchy red fruit detail. 2026 for us is all about purity, drinkability and place. A vintage that speaks softly, but with clarity.

The more moderate, gradual warm up provided for good hang time on vines for all varietals, which allowed the Sangiovese to develop some really great red focused fruit flavours with a the hallmark tense acid line to push the vibrancy. The fruit was hand harvested on March 3 under ideal conditions at a Baume levels of ~12° to focus and capture the optimal fruit flavours as well as the natural acid.

The fruit was harvested from a SWA certified, single vineyard in Wilyabrup with 22 year old Sangiovese vines that had been planted on their own roots with a north-south row orientation, a southerly aspect, and on fertile gravelly loam soils where the topsoil sits over deep, iron rich clay. Gravel warms up quickly in the sun to help ripen grapes. Fruit was harvested On a whole, wines from the 2026 vintage will be characterised by varietal aromatics, plush concentrated fruit, structure, and a depth of flavour driven by good natural acidity.