Barrel Ferment Fiano 2021

Description

94 points with the biggest competition in Australia and New Zealand is a great accolade for a wine of huge complexity, and yet so delicious that every mouthful is savoured.

Grown on our Cottonvale vineyard, Hand-picked, 60% fermented in French oak and handled with exquisite care, this wine portrays the zesty characteristics expected of Fiano backed by a little oak creaminess. Tangerine and stone-fruit dominate the nose and palate while subtle almond nuttiness lingers delightfully. Pair with seafood, spicy dishes and poultry.

You wouldn’t make a Fiano with 60% new French Oak unless you had some top-quality fruit, the vintner’s luck arrived in 2021!  The quality of the fruit was evident after a few sips. A gleaming radiant straw colour with light yellow, glints of green and bursts of gold reflecting an uncontainable exuberance emitted with extroverted happiness – an inviting and lustrous Fiano, who couldn’t go there!

A complex bouquet foretelling a complex palate.  Here you’ll encounter fruit and oak but the fruit, especially early, dominates.  There is a noticeable zing and tang in the aromatic wafts – an indefatigable statement from the fruit of its power & weight. Tropicals, stone fruits, lemons & oranges drift from the glass & give way to a slight mineral quality with a little oak announcing a late presence.

The palate unfurls the fruit weight with zesty enthusiasm, there are yellow flesh peaches and nectarines, oranges and mandarins merge into tangerines, lemons express just a little later and this loquacious liquid flow is captured in perfect partnership with a creamy mouth caressing enjoyable textural contribution from the oak.  The coalescent fruit, oak and yeast have produced raw cashews and almonds to add additional complexity to an already very exciting palate.  The style here is a grown-up Fiano with elegance and fruit zest fused into a form with energy and poise.  It is quite different from a Fiano made entirely in tank which will express more racy acidity, instead, this one offers a masterful resolution between tingling energy and taming texture – if you enjoy both but not at their extremes you will love this wine.

Viticultural / Vinification Notes

60% of the hand-picked, single vineyard, Granite Belt fruit was fermented Aquaflex French Oak (bent by water) with specifically selected yeast. A second, 40% tranch of fruit was fermented in tanks and left on lees for 6 months. Two years later the two tranches were blended and released as a cellarable white. As the first vintage off the end of the drought, the pick was a very good tonnage, but the yield per berry was just 58% which was quite low for Fiano, leading to a highly flavoured juice. This gave us the option of playing with oak and settling on the above proportions. Due to the dry conditions we were able to pick late, and very ripe, at high Baumé, which then produced alcohol levels of 12.8%, making it one of our heavier whites.