When asked ‘what do you do?’ in terms of occupation, the most common answer we use is “I’m a winemaker”. Which of course is true, but probably the correct answer should be that we are grape growers. After all, the winemaking part of it all is over and done with fairly swiftly and the remainder of the year is spent looking after vines, obsessing about the weather and aiming to balance and manage our soils.
The vineyard is where we have seen the biggest changes over the past decades. Early notebooks show the cabernet sauvignon grapes being picked in late April to early May, today it is unusual for the cabernet sauvignon to be picked any later than the first week of April. Pinot noir is the same - from the past start around 15th March, to today when we often start at the beginning of the month.
From a grape grower’s perspective, it’s pretty hard to argue against the fact that climate change is real. Across the world vineyards are continually assessing their vineyard practices, and we are no different.
Our trellising has evolved, allowing for more shade for the grapes so as to avoid sunburn. Twenty years ago these same vines would have potentially had some fruit zone leaves removed so as to get the sun into the bunch zone, to the ripen the berries and tannins. That practice is rare these days.
Our mulch use and management of indigenous grasses under the vines not only helps to maintain moisture, but also acts to prevent heat from the sun into the root zone. Tweaking the vineyard inputs to move with the climate is as important as fermentation cap management in the winery. As many have been saying for years, what happens in the vineyard reflects the starting point of how good the final wine might be.
The last few seasons have been difficult, not so much in a management way, rather in the things that were out of our control. The 2021 - 2022 season was so hopeful in the spring, with just beautiful even bud burst and really great early potential bunch numbers. But the windy, wet weather during flowering was no friend to pinot noir, and yet again we have had a small production year. As they say, fantastic quality though…. Thankfully chardonnay and the cabernet family fared better and produced some of the loveliest bunches we have seen.
As many of our long time customers know the vineyard was planted in 1963. It has had a few small reworks over the early years but for the most part the vines are around 45 - 55 years old. Some are still flourishing, others have been reworked and after a 2 year mild slumber are back to almost full production. However a small plot of chardonnay and merlot vines that never really lived up to their potential, always frustrating us in what they could be and never really producing the sort of yield that we thought reasonable. We tried compost, did petiole and soil tests to see if they were lacking nutrients but in the end it was decided that they had to go. Reg believes that the plot may have been planted too soon after he removed large pine trees in the early 1970s, and hence the vines never really got going.
So we have left the soil sit for a year and are now preparing it for replanting in October. Many a hole will be dug, filled with compost and the new vine planted. Then more mulch to help the vine thrive and to encourage the roots to go deep into the clay to remain self sufficient for water in the coming years. Then a few more years until we see the fruit....
On another note, we thought that our customers would like to know about the December 2021 passing of one of Wantirna Estate’s founders - Bertina Egan. Many of you would have met Bertina at our open days or had correspondence from her over the years.
The wines on offer this year are the 2021 Isabella Chardonnay, the 2020 Lily Pinot Noir, 2020 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and the 2020 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot.
All the wines are in very small supply.
Orders will be filled on receipt of purchase.
Please order either via the website or by filling in the order form. (HYPERLINK)
Order forms can be scanned or photographed and then emailed or sent to via SMS to Maryann 0412 589 490
.
Please note for those who would like to plan a visit - the open days are a little earlier this year -
Saturday October 1st and Saturday October 8th 10am to 4pm
2021 Isabella Chardonnay
A beautiful year for all the wines, and the chardonnay was really gorgeous. Just a tiny amount made again, from grapes that were harvested in two batches, allowing us to capture different flavours from the season. There was a mix of weather across the ripening time, allowing for some golden ripened fruit on the sunny side of the rows, with lovely crunchy acid on the more shaded aspects. Chardonnay is such a resilient variety, the roots go deep into the ground here and even in dry years we wouldn’t think they needed any water - the vineyard is largely unirrigated.
The 2021 Isabella shows the season beautifully. It is not a tutti fruit wine, rather the tertiary flavours that you see in the wines of Europe
Price $80
2020 Lily Pinot Noir
We decided to hold back the release of the 2020 Lily until now, to allow it to really bounce back from bottling and develop some of the lovely Lily flavours that we know this wine to show after some time. Mostly the delay in release was done for restaurant wine lists as we see this wine develop so well after 15 months in bottle. The wine has lived up to what we expected and is beginning to really show just how lovely Pinot Noir from this place in the world can be. Rich, without bigness, flavours of all the red fruits and berries. Soft tannin and filling out to be a beautiful medium bodied red wine. Must say we are delighted to have taken the step to give the wine a little longer before release.
Unfortunately just two barrels made, so in very short supply.
Price $80
2020 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
The quality of the cabernet family grapes was probably the highlight of the year that was 2020! Unfortunately, the quantity was really quite horrible and just two barrels were made. The composition was approximately 68% cabernet sauvignon, 17% cabernet franc / merlot and 15% petit Verdot. So small was the petit verdot crop that we had to knock the end out of a barrel to ferment the grapes in!
The 2020 Amelia is a refined wine, balanced in weight and with really lovely tannins.
A terrific example of Yarra Valley cabernet.
2 barrels only made
Price $80
2020 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot
The grapes for the Hannah were harvested 25th March, on a beautiful cold, but sunny autumn morning. The grapes were de-stemed then transferred to the open fermenters, before a few days of cold soaking. When this option for a pre soak is available - on a cold harvest morning - we really like to do this. The pre - ferment maceration tends to draw out lovely colour and begins the gentle extraction of the tannins from the skins.
The 2020 Hannah has a little more cabernet franc than merlot. Cabernet franc is such an attractive variety, and offers beautiful fruit flavours to the more savoury merlot. We bottle the Hannah after 12 months in barrel to capture these characters and then bottle age the wine for 15 months before release.
As usual, just one barrel, 288 bottles made.
Limit 3 bottles per person
Price $140
MUSEUM RELEASE
2011 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and 2011 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot
So 2011 was a wet year, one that was considered a lesser year. But often the difficult years is when something needs to be whisked out of the winemakers’ hat and really ‘make the wine’. And to then give the wine some time to evolve.
The 2011 Amelia and Hannah are wines that possibly sit in this category. Many of the journalists simply wrote off the vintage, but really without taking into account what small, real hand - winemaking winemakers might be able to produce. We were confident that both wines would develop into a lovely wines with some time.
So we held back a little and we think they are drinking really well right now.
And since we have tiny amounts of the 2020 Amelia, this small museum release might go a small way towards bolstering our wine offer this year.
Price Amelia $100
Hannah $150
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