The Year Wines narrative reads like a classic old tale of boy meets girl, girl meets boy. They met when Caleigh came to experience an Australian vintage after working in the wine industry in her native Canada. Happily, this was at the winery Luke was dragging hoses around at the time. Fast forward ten years and they have a son, daughter, the quintessential mortgage, a sporadically producing kitchen garden and some odd-ball pets. Through a mixture of serendipity and blind faith they’ve been able to make wine under their own label; wine with interest, integrity and provenance, whilst above all remaining wine they love to drink. These wines just get better & better each year. These two are fantastic.
2022 Noodle Juice, McLaren Vale / 18 LUC
“85% Riesling from the Arbon Vineyard in the Tatachilla sub region. Organically run, but not certified. David and Tory (who we met back from mother’s group days when Hux was a wee one, also have their own flock of sheep that they graze in the vineyards.
15% Grillo from Chalk Hill’s Lanark vineyard in Blewitt springs. Certified biodynamic.
The riesling was destemmed and sat on skins for a day before being pressed to a mixture of tank and oak. Full solids, wild ferment. Grillo was selectively harvested so just sat on skins for a day or two before being pressed to tank. Settled for a bit and then ran to oak for a semi-solids wild ferment. No adds on either parcel. Matured on full lees, but not stirred before being gravity racked, blended and then further rested before being bottled. 50ppm S02, unfined and unfiltered. Vegan friendly. 330 cases all up.”
2022 Lunch Punch / 18 LUC
“90% Cabernet from the Cooter vineyard (the one out from our kitchen window). Organically run and certified.
10% Montepulciano from the Paeroa vineyard just around the corner. I think we had a quick squizz at this vineyard on the way to Cascabel?? Same vineyard as the Mataro that goes into Sausage, just around the corner from our place. Organically run, but not certified. It’s managed by Leask agri also have the Hither and Yon label and a heap of there own vineyards in the vale.. Regen Ag is defintely a bit of a buzz word at the mo and is used for plenty of greenwashing, but these guys are legit.
Both parcels were selectively harvested. The Cab was pressed straight away to tank for full solids ferment and the Monte was pressed to tank before going to barrel. Wild fermented and matured on full lees before being gravity racked and blended. Not fined, but i did end up filtering this as it still has a smidge of sugar left in it and was pretty cloudy post rack. 60ppm SO2. Vegan. 250 doz bottled.“