“Some people like to learn from experience, but I like to learn from the experience of others”
Prince Otto Von Bismarck(1815-1898)

Winemaking

Over many years now, we have been very fortunate to retain the services of the great team at the multi award winning Granite Hills winery to help make our wines. Llew Knight and assistant winemaker, Ian Gunter have been able to craft some very interesting and innovative wines for us. This has enabled us to put all our efforts into concentrating on the quality of the fruit we are producing and gives us more time and the freedom to experiment in the vineyard. Each time at harvesting, which may be done over a period of several weeks, the grapes are delivered to the winery where they are processed according to the style of wine we are trying to make. For our reds, the grapes are fermented in small fermenters and the cap is hand plunged. In some years the must has been cold soaked prior to fermentation HTML clipboardcommencing. Different yeasts have been tested, including some wild yeast ferments. Upon or nearing the completion of fermentation, the wine is put into new small French oak barriques. Our oak maturation can be as long as 2.5 years which is unusual for Pinot Noir in Australia, especially where new oak is used, but the fruit is able to handle this extra maturation. During this time the wine is racked once or twice and then usually bottled either with minimum filtration or unfiltered.

Consequently , the wine is liable to throw a crust in the bottle with ageing and so should be DECANTED before serving. Experience has shown that our wines develop further characters when allowed to breathe for a short period!

Wine and Food

All our wine styles are designed to complement food in the European tradition and so exhibit multi dimensional subtle flavours. You will be rewarded if you take your time to match the wines with food and savour these flavours that are the culmination of our years of endeavour. We also hold back the release of our reds so that they are beginning to approach optimal drinking when released. Some great food matches for our reds are game, lamb, duck, ragout, and for the ultimate match try our Pegeric Pinot Noir with Pea and Ham soup!