The 2009 vintage has been a challenging but ultimately rewarding vintage. A dry winter was followed by a cold and wet spring, just as flowering was in full swing. Thus grape yields were down and disease pressure was increased. However the ripening season was moderately warm, dry and even; perfect for ripening grapes with great natural acidity and fresh tight fruit flavours.
The 2009 season has delivered us fine and linear Riesling fruit flavours: lime juice and some white flowers from Mt Barker and tight mineral and lime skin characters from the Porongurups.
The fruit upon arrival at the winery was immediately processed to ensure the highest quality juice. Only free run juice, which is tighter and more finely structured as it has no phenolic character, was used for this wine.
Most juice batches showed wonderfully restrained Riesling aromatics, fine elegant fruit and great length. We kept 15 individual batches separate which were cool fermented in stainless steel tanks to maintain the delicate fruit flavours.