Way too often we recently started our vintage reports with a note ‘a vintage to forget’. Well, nature hasn’t been very kind to us in the last few years. After we had lost whole 2019 crop to bushfire we had to fight massive drought in the 2020 and then the 2021 arrived with so much rain and strong disease pressure that Mark and I were looking at each other with a question: What’s next? Locust?
The sad truth is that we couldn’t make any reds in the 2021. Grapes would simply succumb to botrytis before they would get ripe. BUT! The small quantity of whites we made is EXCELLENT.
Why is that so? In general, white varieties often ripen earlier than red ones so we could pick them before the biggest rain events occurred. Also, our beloved textural varieties like Gewürztraminer or Viognier don’t do well in hot vintages. They both are always too eager to accumulate sugar in hot conditions resulting in big, alcoholic and flabby wines. Hence the cold spring and summer helped us to make some of the freshest iterations of those naturally generous varieties.
In 2020 we introduced new standards to our winemaking. All our white grapes are handpicked. All our fermentations are carried by indigenous yeasts. We don’t acidify our wines and finally we neither fine nor filter our wines before bottling. Addition of preservatives has to be within limits for organic wine production (usually much lower).
We hope you’ll enjoy the 2021 white range. We love the wines and feel rewarded for the effort we put into this ‘vintage perhaps NOT to forget’?
MANSENG 2021
Petit Manseng or Gros Manseng? While we believed we planted Petit Manseng fifteen years ago the new
DNA research conducted by Wine Australia showed that all planting material that has been imported to Australia is actually Gros Manseng.
What’s the difference? Both varieties have very small berries (Petit smaller than Gros), both share intensive ripe citrus and floral aromatic profile and mainly both are high in natural acid.
Therefor there’s now only ‘MANSENG’ on the front label. Who knows with what researchers will surprise us in a couple of years.
The 2021 is a very elegant wine with subdued but complex aromas of white flowers and all kinds of juicy citruses. Taut lemony acidity gives the wine enormous vibe and energy to carry on lemon and grapefruit flavours to a long zesty finish. Wine with long life ahead!
Winemaking:
- Spontaneously fermented in stainless steel tank.
- Aged for 14 months in old barriques and hogsheads.
- Bottled without fining & filtration.
- Very small production – 1998 bottles
- Cellaring potential up to 2030 & beyond
Retail Price $35
Terroir Club price $29.75
To purchase click HERE
GEWÜRZTRAMINER 2021
In 2020 we completely changed approach to our Gewurztraminer. This unique variety has potential to
create some of the best textural white wines in the world hence the texture was in our prime focus. Juice from handpicked grapes is spontaneously fermented in ceramic eggs and consequently aged in stainless steel tank with fine lees to be bottled prior the following vintage without fining & filtration.
The resulting wine shows layers of flavors of grapefruit, orange peel, mango, cardamon & hint of flint and mainly long deliciously spicy finish with nice phenolic grip. This Gewürztraminer is bone dry, athletic and fresh reflecting the cool climate of our terroir.
Winemaking:
- Spontaneously fermented in ceramic eggs.
- Malolactic fermentation arrested.
- Aged for 10 months in tank.
- Bottled without fining & filtration.
- Miniscule production – 871 bottles
- Cellaring potential up to 2028
Retail Price $35
Terroir Club price $29.75
To purchase click HERE
VIOGNIER 2021
A few years ago we opened a great bottle of Topper’s Viognier 2010 and looked at each other with the
same thought: Why the heck don’t we make straight Viognier? This wine is another great example of why aromatic & textural white varieties do so well at Topper’s Mountain terroir. Warm but not hot days and very cold nights provide the grapes with long hangtime for steady slow ripening without losing their vibrant freshness.
The 2021 shows generous apricot jam & pepper on the forefront – the hallmarks of Viognier – which accompanied by quince, citrus candy and herbal notes in the rich, roundy mid-palate which zooms to a juicy peppery finish to just linger for ages. Wine of a beautiful textural balance to be enjoyed with food which will benefit from a few years in the cellar.
Winemaking:
- Spontaneously fermented ceramic eggs.
- Spontaneous MLF.
- Aged for 10 months in old barriques.
- Bottled without fining & filtration.
- Miniscule production – 371 bottles
- Cellaring potential up to 2028
This wine has been made in a very small batch and is available to our Terroir Club Members only.
Retail Price $47
Terroir Club price $39.95
To purchase click HERE
Don’t forget to check out our previous 2021 white releases:
