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Vignerons Lic Number:
2401 2155 |
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ACO Certification Number 2446A |
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Newsletter No 4
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27 November 2006. Newsletter No 4.
Welcome to our fourth newsletter, the first was published in August 2005, and our pre-Christmas release. It has been a difficult month at Glencoe. Most of our regular customers would be aware by now that our vineyard was frosted twice this season, the last and most severe 2 weeks ago now. We were affected by the cold air mass that came up from Antarctica. In fact the day before the frost we actually had snow and sleet at Glencoe, in November! Anyway we have tried to put it behind us – it might even have a positive side in reducing the wine grape glut as the frost has been widespread. We will have no harvest here in 2007, however several other organic growers have offered to sell us some fruit so all is not lost.
Thank you to all our regular customers who have continued to support us this year, it is really encouraging when we continue to be supported by loyal customers.
Christmas Wines
If you are looking to have wines for Christmas I would encourage you to order as early as possible as outside of the New England we use Australia Post and there could be delivery delays coming up to Christmas. Also, we are very happy to pack and send MIXED DOZENS.
New Releases
2004 Clementson Shiraz is now available. This wine has been eagerly awaited by many of you, I apologize for the delay. The wine is bottled under natural cork and you will find the tasting notes following.
Two other quick items.
We hate junk mail, so if you would not like to receive this newsletter, please tell us and we will gladly remove your name from our list. And secondly, we mainly survive by word of mouth marketing, if you would like to introduce us to a friend please send back the response sheet so that we can add their name and address to our mailing list.
Communicating with us;
By all means communicate with us if you have any questions, advice or encouragement. You can always contact me on my mobile at 0422203817, by post or email scott@wrightwine.com. We are always open to feed back, if you love Sauvignon Blanc, and wonder why we don’t make it please tell me. You are always welcome at the winery, if I am not here you will be welcomed by Naomi who works for us two days a week. Please make yourself known to her, as we give our newsletter subscribers special pricing. Also you will notice that we have begun closing at 4pm and on Thursdays. The reason being is that young Stuart (our son) now goes to school and I collect him from the bus at five past four and we close on Thursdays so that I can visit our Restaurant customers.
Thanks again for your patronage, we wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas season. We look forward to supplying you in the New Year with the best wine that we can make.
Yours,
Scott Wright
Owner/Winemaker
2005 Crossbred
(Pinot Gris Chardonnay)
Named after the famous “Crossbred” ewe that grazes New England pastures, this wine came about as a trial when our volumes of Pinot Gris and Chardonnay were dramatically reduced in the 2005 vintage. “What if?” we try blending the two, not normally done but we’re pretty happy with the result.
Both the wines were fermented separately in barrel, and blended after winter when they were racked. Their was some Lees stirring in each.
The wine is dominated by the Pinot Gris, with nice Lime and Pear, and a Nutty character contributed by the Chardonnay. As with all our Chardonnay and Pinot Gris wines, the wine has very apparent oak from the French Oak Hogsheads. On the palate the wine is dry and Savoury but with balanced acidity and excellent length.
It is a very interesting blend that will hopefully fill the gap left by our single variety Chardonnay and Pinot Gris wines. Enjoy now and as an experiment try again in 2-3 years.
2005 Minus Eighteen
(Cane Cut Riesling)
Very sweet and very rich. This is our first true dessert wine, named after the local rumor of Minus Eighteen Degrees Celcius one famous morning during the 2002 drought.
This is a wine that is essentially made in the vineyard. The fruit is ripened to a sugar level far in excess of normal grapes. The cordons (or branches) of the vine are cut at normal ripeness and the fruit allowed to shrivel for another 2 months. The resulting grapes look more like sultanas and the amount of juice harvested is extremely low.
The juice is pressed, chilled for 48 hours, racked and fermented. The fermentation takes many months, in fact our 2006 Minus Eighteen is still fermenting as I write this in September.
The wine is intense, driven by citrus and dried fruit characters on the nose, on the palate the wine is luscious, sweet, rich with amazing length.
I guess you either love or hate Dessert wines. I love them, they are just exquisite when everything comes together. This is our first attempt, please enjoy it and give us feedback. Because of the concentrated nature of the juice and low yields, you will appreciate the need for the wine to be bottled in 375mL bottles.
2005 Black Poll
(Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Petit Verdot)
Why the name? Well this is a big wine and goes great with big steaks. Black Poll is what old timers like my Grandfather used to call Angus Cattle. We wanted to give a New England feel to our wines, so this is the second wine in the series following our successful Minus Twelve. Big, black and chewy was the style so hence the name Black Poll. Also Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Petit Verdot was a bit of a mouthful.
So why the blend? Well traditionally in Bordeaux in France Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot were grown as the components of a Bordeaux Red Wine. So this combination was an experiment on my part by taking the three available varieties from three New England vineyards. The reason they were traditionally blended is because each variety brought unique characteristics to the wine. Length and flavour in the case of Cabernet Sauvignon, fruit and mid palate richness in Merlot and aroma and tannin in terms of Petit Verdot.
Each of the components I fermented separately, each in open fermenters and fermented on skins but pressed off before the ferment was completed. All, as normal, ran to a hot tail. The Petit Verdot with more sugar than the other components was a challenge to ferment and took several months to completely ferment the last 3-4% of sugar.
The Cabernet was initially aged in new American Oak while the other two components were aged in older French Oak. After eight months the wines were racked, blended and finished their maturation in the same barrels.
The wine is bottled in a traditional Bordeaux shaped bottle with a traditional cork. It is wine that could certainly benefit from some time laid down before consumption, have a look at it again in 4-5 years but is really a good wine now. It has a deep intense ruby colour. The nose is complex with a American Oak cedar and smoke, blackcurrant, blackberry, plum and violet characters. On the palate the wine has beautiful fruit sweetness, firm drying tannins and a real length of flavour.
We are very happy with this wine and will be interested to watch it’s development in the bottle.
Cheers
Scott Wright.
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