The grapes for this wine arrive from one of the most passionate, salt of the earth growers we know; Brian “Bri” Llewis. His Greenacres Vineyard in Merriang South is hidden deep in an isolated valley at the foot of the spectacular Mt Buffalo, if you haven’t spent any time on the plateau of Mt Buffalo you are missing out. In our opinion this easily is the most beautiful of all the nearby alpine mountains. During the heat of summer on days above 38°c we often flee up the mountain to the picture perfect Lady Bath Falls to cool off in the brisk mountain water.
Having this monolithic mountain towering over the vineyard helps temper the climate by providing a stream of cold mountain air dropping down into the valley. This makes Greenacres Vineyard an ideal site for growing varieties that thrive in cooler climates such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The fruit is picked in the cool of the night and delivered to the winery before dawn where it is immediately loaded into the press and pressed on a gentle champagne cycle with an early press cut generally made at around 5OOL per tonne. We do not treat this Chardonnay in an overly oxidative manner as we want to highlight the delicate nuances of such a cool site.
Once pressed, juice is chilled and racked to tank with a fraction of the soft fluffy lees taken. The juice is then allowed to warm to 18°c to allow natural wild ferment to ensue. Once the ferment is going strongly the temperature is then dropped to 16°c and held, this is relatively cool for a Chardonnay ferment. Once the ferment has dropped to around 6 baume it is transferred to seasoned French Oak with an average age of 6 years to complete ferment. Generally around 2O% of the barrels complete MLF. 9 months maturation on fluffy lees with minimal stirring before bottling.
Our Greenacres Vineyard Chardonnay is uniquely Alpine and does not try to be something it’s not, instead celebrating its fine boned structure, pristine balanced acidity, minerality and subtle oak. We think the Alpine Valleys have great potential to produce very high quality Chardonnay that punch above their weight. We look forward to making many wines from this fruit into the future, mainly because we love to drink them!
REGION/GI: ALPINE VALLEY
GROWER: BRI LEWIS
VINES PLANTED: 2OOO
ELEVATION: 3OOm ASL
SOIL TYPE: ALLUVIAL CLAY
ROW ORIENTATION: NORTH SOUTH
The grapes for this wine arrive from one of the most passionate, salt of the earth growers we know; Brian “Bri” Llewis. His Greenacres Vineyard in Merriang South is hidden deep in an isolated valley at the foot of the spectacular Mt Buffalo, if you haven’t spent any time on the plateau of Mt Buffalo you are missing out. In our opinion this easily is the most beautiful of all the nearby alpine mountains. During the heat of summer on days above 38°c we often flee up the mountain to the picture perfect Lady Bath Falls to cool off in the brisk mountain water.
Having this monolithic mountain towering over the vineyard helps temper the climate by providing a stream of cold mountain air dropping down into the valley. This makes Greenacres Vineyard an ideal site for growing varieties that thrive in cooler climates such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The fruit is picked in the cool of the night and delivered to the winery before dawn where it is immediately loaded into the press and pressed on a gentle champagne cycle with an early press cut generally made at around 5OOL per tonne. We do not treat this Chardonnay in an overly oxidative manner as we want to highlight the delicate nuances of such a cool site.
Once pressed, juice is chilled and racked to tank with a fraction of the soft fluffy lees taken. The juice is then allowed to warm to 18°c to allow natural wild ferment to ensue. Once the ferment is going strongly the temperature is then dropped to 16°c and held, this is relatively cool for a Chardonnay ferment. Once the ferment has dropped to around 6 baume it is transferred to seasoned French Oak with an average age of 6 years to complete ferment. Generally around 2O% of the barrels complete MLF. 9 months maturation on fluffy lees with minimal stirring before bottling.
Our Greenacres Vineyard Chardonnay is uniquely Alpine and does not try to be something it’s not, instead celebrating its fine boned structure, pristine balanced acidity, minerality and subtle oak. We think the Alpine Valleys have great potential to produce very high quality Chardonnay that punch above their weight. We look forward to making many wines from this fruit into the future, mainly because we love to drink them!
REGION/GI: ALPINE VALLEY
GROWER: BRI LEWIS
VINES PLANTED: 2OOO
ELEVATION: 3OOm ASL
SOIL TYPE: ALLUVIAL CLAY
ROW ORIENTATION: NORTH SOUTH
