Our Wines - 2011 - Batch 2 Sparkling Vermentino
Devote
The Wine
Pale straw in the glass with a bead of fine, energetic bubbles cascading to the surface of the wine. Great clarity of aromas with bright, vibrant citrus fruits bursting out of the glass. Aromas of lemon, lime and grapefruit mesh with notes of juicy pear, guava and white peach to create a heady bouquet. Hints of lemon verbena, nougat, lemon curd, clotted cream, almond paste appear along with lighter wafts of praline, lemon myrtle, nectarine and feijoa.
A crisp, vibrant entry onto the palate with the wines effervescence perfectly balanced with the primary fruit characters. Flavours of lemon, lime and grapefruit are underscored by notes of white peach and guava. Lovely flow over the mid-palate where flavours of lemon myrtle, clotted cream, nougat, creme fraiche and lanolin all come into play. Lighter notes of marzipan, lemon verbena, feijoa and assorted stone-fruits come into play on the back-palate as the wine finishes with great clarity and drive showing clean fruit flavours, crisp acidity and good drive to he end. We are delighted with our 2011 Devote Sparkling Vermentino, certainly refreshing over the warmer months but perfect all year round as an aperitif, with light meat dishes or matched to all manner of seafood.
The Winemaking
The grapes were handpicked on 22nd March at 10.7 baume, crushed and pressed, and cold fermented to maintain maximum fruit freshness. This wine was then filtered prior to second fermentation in bottle, and spent 15 months on yeast lees prior to disgorgement.
This is a variety that we love and are passionate about, we have growers that feel exactly the same. This makes this wine very special to us and it is all from a gut feel of what we think we ought to do. This was a vintage that you thought ‘what the hell let’s have a crack’, well that’s what we thought the cool vintage gave us a chance to say ‘let’s make bubbles.’
This wine has been disgorged in 2 batches, batch 1 fresh and vibrant and batch 2 with longer yeast contact.
Disgorged – 12th December2012
Alc – 10.46
pH – 2.99
Batch 1 Released February 2012 – 30 dozen
Batch 2 December 2012– 30 dozen
The Vineyard
The grapes were grown on the outskirts of Light Pass. The vines were planted in 2006 by the Mader Family and possible are the first plantings of Vermentino in the Barossa. The grapes were picked at the end of March to obtain acid and freshness.