Verdelho 2021

94pts with Winestate, The Heritage Estate Verdelho is a champion on many levels, including Gold at the Queensland wine awards and 94pts with Winestate.

The Verdelho is created from grapes picked at perfect ripeness and then fermented using a variety of yeast strains all of which have proven to add their own dimension to the wine.

Aromas of banana and rockmelon compete perfectly with ruby grapefruit notes. The palate is light and flows beautifully with texture and citrus acidity to balance.

The Granite Belt 2021 Whites are continuing to show as excellent, this time a lovely Verdelho from the Heritage Estate Cottonvale Vineyard and the skills of John Handy.

The wine shows in the glass as light flaxen and melded with just a possibility of pale bronze.  As soon as I encountered the bouquet I thought ‘Yeast’ and in confirmation on the back label is written “fermented using a variety of yeast strains” – I suspect John Handy has become a master of yeasts and fermentation.

A brioche and sourdough croissant fragrance was delivered to my senses by this redolent wine which also generated floating wafts of newly ripened banana, packham pears, light citrus and honeydew melon.

The palate also features the yeast effects with some lovely yeasty/bready tastes and a slight viscosity which is smooth, gently gliding and just a little creamy, I haven’t encountered a verdelho before that has this level of assimilation of textural caress and fruit expression. The fruits are somewhat subdued grapefruit, light pineapple, honeydew melon, lemon rind and some shy mandarin.  The wine is dry and there is enough citrus acidity to excite your palate and perfectly underpin the yeasty textural aspects.  The finish is slightly sour rind and a little pithy and it produces a long tapering mouth pucker.  A quite different verdelho awaits your palate at Heritage Estate – yeasty and fruity, texture and tension, creamy and juxtaposed with sour puckering pithiness and a little citrusy acidic tingling – great artistry here!