2023 Durif Nouveau, Beechworth

Handmade –  Hand Picked - Gently basket pressed – No acid or enzymes added – Natural wild yeast ferment – Barrel aged nine months on lees - Unfined

Single Vineyard – Battely Vineyard, Beechworth ///// Grower – Paul “Bear” Dahlenburg

THE WINE

A one off release, the result of some surplus fruit from the acclaimed Battely Vineyard in the Beechworth GI offered to us by Eldorado Road. The vineyard is planted on a bony ridge composed of red sandy loam with slate and ironstone fragments and is naturally very low yielding. The vineyard is predominantly planted to Shiraz but there is a small planting of Durif also.

VINIFICATION

The fruit was gently handpicked, a grand total of 1.8T. The fruit was cooled overnight in the cool room before gentle processing. The grapes were destemmed but not crushed as to limit the extraction of tannin as our goal was to craft an approachable early drinking style of this normally powerhouse variety. A brief 24 hour cold soak was undertaken to encourage juicy soft flavours in the final wine. Fermented wild and kept relatively cool during ferment, gentle hand plunging once daily, all help limit extraction.

13 days on skins before gentle basket pressing to seasoned French oak for 9 months maturation on full gross lees. A perfumed, delicate, pretty, early drinking style of Durif.  

Vegan friendly, gently filtered before hand bottling onsite December 2023.