2013 Alchemy Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

Tasting Notes

Lively straw with greens. The immediate impact of high quality toasted French oak displaying hints of grilled nuts, marzipan and cedar delivers the first of many chapters to this wine. The barest hint of reductive gunsmoke quickly gives way to lifted grapefruit and lemon essence. This wine is all about structure and texture derived from top quality French Oak, lees stirring and significantly, whole bunch fermentation. The palate is highly complex delivering layers of sea minerals, citrus pith, celery and earthy cornucopia. Beguiling in its depth the wine lingers at length winding up with brilliant cleansing acidity and tannins. Drinking impeccably now the wine will evolve and develop for the next decade (or more).

Winemaking

The fruit for this wine was sourced from Blakes Vineyard situated in the Moorabool Valley. Harvest occurred on a sunny March day and the fruit was delivered to the winery in the late afternoon. From this point on things went crazy. Half of the fruit was fermented on skins naturally. At 2 Baume the ferment was pressed out. One 500 litre puncheon was filled with the juice/wine and the remainder went to stainless steel to complete fermetation. The other half of the fruit was whole bunch pressed then fermented on heavy solids in stainless steel untilising a neutral ADWY. At 5 Baume a new 300 litre French oak hogshead was filled to ferment level from the tank and allowed to finish off in barrel. Both barrel components received lees stirring during their elevage. Finally all components were racked and blended, stabilised, lightly fined with skim milk, filtered and then bottled.