Rainy and cold vintages are generally considered as not great if not poor but for white varieties it can actually be the other way around given there’s not too much rain resulting in all kinds of undesirable rot esp. botrytis. At Topper’s we make three principal single varietal white wines – Gewurztraminer, Viognier and Manseng. The first two are generally known as ‘textural’ or ‘body driven’ and in hot years can turn out too big and lacking freshness.
In many (or shall we say in the most) cases both white and red wines in Australia are ‘acidified’. That means nothing else than adding tartaric acid (which is normally present in grapes albeit sometimes in low quantities to provide enough freshness) from a bag to the juice prior fermentation. At Topper’s we decided to not to do that. We believe we selected the right place for growing grapes to make balanced wines without alterations. So coming back to our textural varieties – as acidification is no option for us the cold vintage conditions actually worked in our favor giving the grapes enough time to develop ripe flavours without losing precious freshness.
Gewurztraminer 2022
We used to make our Gewurz in stainless steel tank only to capture all the captivating aromas. We also made it solely
in new French barrels to chase the textural qualities of the grape. But that’s the past. Now it seems the best way is somewhere in-between. These days we ferment our Gewurz in ceramic oval shaped fermenters. Now these are different from traditional clay amphorae (which we love and adore as well) although sharing the same raw material. Our ‘Clayvers’ are high-tech fermenters allowing natural vortex currents which makes the solids moving around helping to build the texture and decrease the ferment temperature at the same time. During this process we hope to extract compounds from the solids that will provide beautifully rounded and creamy mouthfeel while adding light bitter grip to the finish at the same time.
After the fermentation is over we transfer the wine to the stainless steel tank where the inert, protective environment of the vessel helps to retain the spicy and exotic aromas so typical for the variety.
And this is where we are now – the Gewurz is settling down and evolving in a tank to be bottled in December.
How does it look at the moment? We’re very happy with the Gewurz so far. Lov
ely spicy aromas are slightly understated (which is normal at this stage of development). Texture is building beautifully and all of that is balanced by freshness that is unheard of in Gewurztraminer universe.
Viognier 2022
This is exciting and still relatively young project. We didn’t use to make single varietal Viognier – it was historically mostly blended with reds with exception of 2010. Looking at this wine when ten years of age we could’ve seen a great potential. Since 2020 the Viognier has become integral part of our white portfolio. While we’re still learning how to work with this finicky grape it has been clear that we can make excellent Viognier at Topper’s.
One of the trickiest thing with Viognier is its picking window which opens only for a few days until it gets overripe and flabby. Here, again, the cold vintage helped us as the picking window is usually opened the shorter the warmer it is.
Grapes were in a very good condition even though we didn’t get much of them. Typical for Viognier. Handpicked and gently pressed the juice underwent spontaneous fermentation (we didn’t do or add anything to onset the magical process) in Clayvers like our Gewurztraminer. Textbook fermentation was steady and not too warm and once finished the wine was transferred to only TWO! barrels where it immediately started spontaneous malolactic fermentation. It was really satisfying to see the juice and subsequently the wine naturally navigating its transformations without any interventions.
We love our 2022 Viognier. Definitely a cool climate expression of the variety – fresh apricots and pepper underpinned with a soft but high acidity, no oiliness. For maturation we opt for one year old Austrian oak which is well known for its ability to preserve natural flavours. While slightly understated at the moment we hope it will be something exceptional after ten months in barrel.
Manseng 2022
Full name of the grape is Gros Manseng and it’s the only white variety making us a little worried when we saw the cold conditions of the vintage. Unlike Gewurz and Viognier this grape has so much natural acidity that freshness is not an issue even in hot vintages. So we waited and waited and waited for the acidity to drop off… until 21st of April when we hand picked the grapes. Now that’s seriously late. Just to put this into context – in the second half of April the vast majority of both white and red grapes all across Australia are already harvested and often even made into wine.
But our patience was rewarded. Handpicking beautifully ripe almost rose golden coloured grapes in freezing 5°C morning we saw this could be the wine of the vintage. Jeez these grapes looked so good. We hand bucketed the grapes to the press at 7pm on the same day and they were still cold which is fantastic as cold temperatures of grapes slow down unwanted enzymatic reactions. Unlike the Gewurz and Viognier where we are focused on building the texture with the Manseng we want to achieve balance between texture and purity which is why we opted for gentle whole bunch pressing.
Fermentation took place partly in Clayver and partly in old barrels. Cold autumn weather helped with a steady slow fermentation followed by spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Will this be the wine of the vintage? Let’s see but it looks great at this stage showing lovely aromas of ripe citruses and floral notes all carried by juicy intense acidity!
Apart of these three Topper’s ‘classics’ we also made our popular White Submarine, Hill of Dreams and after four years long disruption also a base wine for our traditional method sparkling. But we’ll get back to those and the reds in following blogs.
Jan & the Topper’s Mountain mob!
