The Natural wines of Australia
Tom Shobbrook in his vineyard March 2020
Hello everyone... Most of you know I'm living in Australia and I have been working with wines in Melbourne for some time.
Natural wine in Australia has a very identified scene, due to some winemakers in South Australia. The heart of the concentration where the movement starts, it is in Adelaide Hills in the village of Basket Range, with a great producer in Barossa Valley "Tom Shobbrook", in Mclaren Vale Jauma by James Erskine.
Here a little article by Eric Asimov in the NY Times about the movement:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/dining/drinks/natural-wine-australia-lo-fi.html
Basket Range is on the hills of Adelaide city with lots of natural forests with those patches of vineyards very beautiful, you'll find when you drive up with the car. From Adelaide airport, it's very close 30 minutes driving. Long and cool growing season with vines placed between 450 to 600 meters above sea level, make this region a cool climate wine-growing area. The ripening season comes with the colder temperatures at night time with the day time quite warm and very ventilated, allows the grapes to mature at a slow pace, resulting in concentrated wines. Different soil makes up the terroir, marl, sandy and granitic. It is one of the oldest wine-growing areas in Australia, with two distinct sub-regions, Lenswood and Piccadilly Valley.
I'll talk about my latest wines I have been tasting and latest experience with some producers.
Manon Farm is situated at 600 meters on the Forest Range ridge of the Adelaide Hills between Basket Range and Lenswood. The ridge was formed some 600 million years ago during the Cambrian period, there is a great complexity of very old rocks; predominately mica schists with large ironstone quartz, and a red clay layer. The vines have been planted since 1993 with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Savagnin, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Garganega, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The total area of vines is around 10 hectares. The approach on the farm is holistic with an instinctive communication between Monique Milton and Tim Webber with the ecosystem of their land. The vines are dry-farmed and the land is tended using Biodynamic culture. Tim and Monique moved to Manon Farm in 2016.
Wild Pinot Gris from an untouched vineyard from five years. Crushed by foot, Basket pressed, gives this gold color fading amber, with wild stony fruit, savory line of refreshing acidity, with depth from the roots immersed in the underground terroir.
2019 Gris de Florette Lucy Margaux Basket Range
Pinot Grigio skin-contact with these Frambois Gueze color, the nose of cherry, raspberry, and green strawberry with a salty mineral and dried herbs. The palate paly on the acidity with this nervous energy.
This is Anton's Von Klopper at Lucy Margaux winery, all his wines are made from organically farmed grapes, picked early for lower alcohol, and vinified with zero additives. Chemicals are banned from his way of thinking. Anton is the purist, pristine Vin-Nature of the southern Hemisphere.
Some pictures I took last March during the 2020 harvest at the Domaine Lucy M.:
Lovely sunny days
Anton loves to use different Vessel from Fiber Glass, Amphora, and exhausted oak.
Tom Shobbrook In Vine Vale Barossa Valley.
Barossa is an extremely important wine-producing region within the Barossa zone of South Australia, particularly associated with powerful red wines from the red wine grape variety Shiraz. Home to some of the oldest vineyards in all Australia, the region lies in the flat valley created by the North Para river dominated by valley floors and rolling hills. The growing season is hotter and drier, with temperatures reaching 35°C. The vines are stress by the hot sun, but there is a wide diurnal temperature range, helps to concentrate flavors in the grapes. This part of Australia has never been affected by phylloxera in many areas due to sandy soil. Other grape varieties of the region include Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Semillon, Riesling, Grenache and Mourvedre, and Viognier. Barossa stretched with its neighborhood cooler climate neighbor Eden Valley which is known for dry white wines from the Riesling grape variety.
Vine Vale is another little zone in Barossa close to Eden Valley where Tom likes to grow some of his wines especially Semillon and Grenache.
2019 Harvest in Tom Cellar
Tom is a name inextricably linked with the natural wine movement in Australia and a greater movement towards handpicked, naturally fermented, minimal intervention wines of exceptional quality. With Sam Hughes, James Erskine & Anton von Klopper, Tom's one of the voices of change in the Australian industry and has been elemental in the shift of international perception of Australian wine.
Tom’s Didi top tier label and his more playful Tommy Ruff label are entirely estates produced wines, with all fruit grown & processed on the Shobbrook family’s proprieties. The vineyards are farmed organically by Tom and his family and have been since 2004. Tom picks earlier than most in the Barossa, ferments in open ton flex tanks, 500L ceramic eggs, and wood of varying format. All wines are naturally fermented, seeing no acidification or other additions and are neither fined nor filtered. All wines are foot stomped, moved only by gravity. A pure sense of terroir in Vine Vale and Barossa with an artisanal touch and great savory minerality through old vines and the mind of Tom and his family.
Barossa Old Vine Grenache on Sandy soil
2020 harvest at Shobbrook vineyard South Australia
2016 Tommy Ruff Syrah Mourvedre
A blend of Mourvedre and Shiraz. The wine brings the deep gravel and loam from the creek and the red soils of the hills together. The result is a fresh, meaty red wines with those lovely darker fruit and sappy acidity.
2015 Didi Syrah
From a single vineyard in Seppeltsfield more than 100 years old vines. the grapes are very small and make something special that shows the red soils it comes from.
Each year from the same little space they pick the best fruit they can, passing at least twice through the vineyard. The results are something that shows the journey through the season with the ability to hold structure for many years to come. Here we are in line with the complexity of Cornas with these juicy black fruit of the New World, meaty and black olive tapenade give the sense of terroir to Syrah in Barossa.
2019 Poolside
This is one of the most famous Cuvee of Tom in Australia, which is the love of many natural wine drinkers. Made to drink in Summertime along the pool. Syrah from Vine Vale a very short maceration a rose style but with a color concentration, melon, spices, and pickled raspberry. Tension and energy with violin acidity.
James Erskine,
Jauma Wine - Wild, creative, expressive.
Jauma is a family business founded by James Erskine in 2010. James builds a strong relationship with the Mclaren Vale vineyard region in South Australia with the collaboration of Fiona Wood and Dave Gartelman who help him to manage the vineyards. Jauma works with Chenin blanc, Savagnin, Cabernet Franc, and Traminer.
James in 2018 purchased an organic cherry farm in the hills of Adelaide. This farm celebrates 10 years of certified organic farming and 1200 cherry trees offering 15 varieties.
Mclaren Vale wine region is located approximately 35 kilometers south of Adelaide; very old vines, some planted more than 100 years ago. The climate is Mediterranean, with fresh sea breezes helping to moderate temperatures during the growing season. McLaren Vale is widely seen as the best for Grenache also other varieties are planted here; there two unofficial subzones that are slightly elevated for the plain plateau facing the ocean those are "Blewitt Spring" and "Claredon Hills" make two exceptional crus for this region.
Is a truly salty Fluer de Sel minerality, with lightly fizzyness which bursts your palate and gives a sense of refreshing supported by those orchestra acidities and phenolic bitterness.
Old vines Grenache farm by James
This Grenache, a bright vivid purple color. Notes of red fruit lifted with this stony wet minerality and spice palate, acidity was a medium plus complex fine tannin. Un Grande Vino.
A beautiful evening in summer in Jauma properties
Great people and day in March 2020 in Adelaide Hills Basket Range.
Best
raffaele mastrovincenzo
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