THE VINEYARD
Melville’s Vineyard sits on the eastern flank of the historic Rutherglen wine region and is one of the larger vineyards in the area. Rutherglen sits on the banks on the Murray River and is a much warmer region than the nearby Alpine & King mountain valleys we source a lot of fruit from.
We think the warmer climate makes it a great match for Mediterranean varieties. Fruit from here tends to ripen & be harvested first at the start of the vintage period. This vineyard has originally planted to the more common French varieties but in recent years some blocks have been grafted to exciting alternative varieties including Arneis, Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Grenache & Sangiovese.
The vineyard is expertly managed by long time head viticulturist Matt Partridge. The quality of the fruit delivered by Matt & his team is always of the highest quality and an absolute pleasure to make wine from.
THE WINEMAKING
Machine picked in the cool of the night using a new generation machine harvester and immediately pressed to stainless steel upon arrival to our winery. Only the super clear free run juice is used, extraction is limited to 45OL/T. The upside of only using the clear free juice when making Pet Nat is that you get a fine delicate mouthfeel. This is a “must” for sparkling wines in our opinion. Another key to a good sparkling is acidity and for this reason Fiano was selected to make this wine as one of its desirable natural attributes is it’s propensity to retain its acidity.
The winemaking for this wine is an extremely simple straight forward process. The juice is chilled to 3°c to settle then racked off solids, our experience has been the more solids you can take out of a Pet Nat the less likely it is to gush once bottled. The juice is allowed to warm until a healthy natural wild yeast fermentation commences, once the ferment is strong and active it's then chilled to a brisk 13°c where it was held. A slow, steady fermentation allows the wine to develop complex aromatics and flavours, the end result is a very fine boned, pretty Pet Nat. The only addition to this wine is some nutrients to ensure a healthy clean ferment.
THE WINE
We have been making Pet Nat since 2O19, over that time through trial and error we believe we have mastered the dark art of making wine in this style. The wine exhibits a gentle fine bead bubble, super fine balanced acidity contrast nicely with the texture created by the bottle aging on lees.
Undisgorged as we believe a true Pet Nat should be, however if you prefer a clear, clean style Pet Nat simply decant the wine off its solids immediately upon opening, rinse the bottle and return the wine. Lower carbonation also means the risk of this Pet Nat misbehaving is very low, happy days!
MELVILLES VINEYARD - 36°04’08.8”S 146°33’15.4”E
REGION/GI: RUTHERGLEN
GROWER: MATT PARTRIDGE
VARIETALS: FIANO
VINES PLANTED: 1997
SOIL TYPE: RED CLAY LOAM
ELEVATION: 18Om ASL
ROW ORIENTATION: EAST WEST
THE VINEYARD
Melville’s Vineyard sits on the eastern flank of the historic Rutherglen wine region and is one of the larger vineyards in the area. Rutherglen sits on the banks on the Murray River and is a much warmer region than the nearby Alpine & King mountain valleys we source a lot of fruit from.
We think the warmer climate makes it a great match for Mediterranean varieties. Fruit from here tends to ripen & be harvested first at the start of the vintage period. This vineyard has originally planted to the more common French varieties but in recent years some blocks have been grafted to exciting alternative varieties including Arneis, Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Grenache & Sangiovese.
The vineyard is expertly managed by long time head viticulturist Matt Partridge. The quality of the fruit delivered by Matt & his team is always of the highest quality and an absolute pleasure to make wine from.
THE WINEMAKING
Machine picked in the cool of the night using a new generation machine harvester and immediately pressed to stainless steel upon arrival to our winery. Only the super clear free run juice is used, extraction is limited to 45OL/T. The upside of only using the clear free juice when making Pet Nat is that you get a fine delicate mouthfeel. This is a “must” for sparkling wines in our opinion. Another key to a good sparkling is acidity and for this reason Fiano was selected to make this wine as one of its desirable natural attributes is it’s propensity to retain its acidity.
The winemaking for this wine is an extremely simple straight forward process. The juice is chilled to 3°c to settle then racked off solids, our experience has been the more solids you can take out of a Pet Nat the less likely it is to gush once bottled. The juice is allowed to warm until a healthy natural wild yeast fermentation commences, once the ferment is strong and active it's then chilled to a brisk 13°c where it was held. A slow, steady fermentation allows the wine to develop complex aromatics and flavours, the end result is a very fine boned, pretty Pet Nat. The only addition to this wine is some nutrients to ensure a healthy clean ferment.
THE WINE
We have been making Pet Nat since 2O19, over that time through trial and error we believe we have mastered the dark art of making wine in this style. The wine exhibits a gentle fine bead bubble, super fine balanced acidity contrast nicely with the texture created by the bottle aging on lees.
Undisgorged as we believe a true Pet Nat should be, however if you prefer a clear, clean style Pet Nat simply decant the wine off its solids immediately upon opening, rinse the bottle and return the wine. Lower carbonation also means the risk of this Pet Nat misbehaving is very low, happy days!
MELVILLES VINEYARD - 36°04’08.8”S 146°33’15.4”E
REGION/GI: RUTHERGLEN
GROWER: MATT PARTRIDGE
VARIETALS: FIANO
VINES PLANTED: 1997
SOIL TYPE: RED CLAY LOAM
ELEVATION: 18Om ASL
ROW ORIENTATION: EAST WEST
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