Text from Huon Hooke at THE REAL REVIEW
At the fifth LAS Vino International Chenin Blanc Symposium in Sydney in April, convenor Nic Peterkin explained how he came to produce his ground-breaking LAS Vino CBDB Dynamic Blend Chenin Blanc.
He had made earlier vintages from his father Mike Peterkin’s Fire Gully vineyard in Margaret River’s Wilyabrup subregion, beginning in 2013, but in 2018he switched to the Marri Wood Park vineyard at Yallingup.
'It's a great addition to the Australian chenin blanc story and I suspect it has inspired other winemakers to have a go at making 'incredible' chenin. '
“It is a certified organic and biodynamic site at the northern end of the cape. For the previous few years the vineyard had been completely unkept, unpruned and with no trellising. The vines sprawl everywhere and pigs, geese, guineafowl and cows roam free (which was slightly problematic when picking as we found the pigs eating a few of the buckets of grapes). The site faces north with a little creek running through the middle of the vineyard. Native flowers and plants grow under the rows with no herbicides or pesticides sprayed. It is one of the only four certified biodynamic vineyards in the region and was one of the first to receive Demeter certification.
“The vineyard is dynamic in every sense, biodynamic, characterised by constant change, full of attitude, energy and new ideas and may be a force that stimulates greater change within viticulture. It shouldn’t work, it goes against nearly everything you are taught in viticulture and yet it does work and it’s incredibly exciting making wine from this unique little parcel of land.“The fruit was hand-picked over two weeks but showed varied levels of ripeness through the vineyard and crop, chilled overnight and hand sorted prior to being lightly cold pressed as whole bunches, very gently over a few hours. The juice was left to naturally settle prior to a wild fermentation in a combination of French barriques (70%) and clay amphora (30%). No secondary (malolactic) fermentation, with fortnightly lees stirring prior to being bottled without fining or filtration.”
In addition, 2018 was “an incredible vintage in Margaret River, perhaps the best ever? It was also a big year for chenin blanc, and new ones came to the table.”
Peterkin also explained how he came to be motivated to make a chenin blanc the particular way that he does.
“The concept of this wine was born at university when a South African lecturer held a tasting of the best South African wines. Prior to that most Australian chenin blanc I had toast it was sweet nothingness. This stuff was a barrel fermented beauty in a bottle. I was hooked. I came back to the winery and we had just employed a young South African winemaker who was keen to prove that the Safas could actually make wine. Over the coming months we drank some amazing chenin, both French and South African.“Most of the wines we make at LAS Vino come about from nights of drinking amazing wines (and beer) (and gin) and dreaming of how we can make amazing wines that could knock people’s socks off. Wines that aren’t common, are different in form or style but still taste incredible. After that particular night of drinking, the concept of CBDB was born. The Chenin Blanc Dynamic Blend.”
How was the first vintage, the 2013, actually made?
The intention was;
“A full-bodied chenin blanc, barrel fermented, lees stirred, and left in oak for 10 months. Theo, the South African winemaker, piped up in vintage that if we added a little bit of viognier and sauv blanc we could get some crazy complexity going down. So we did it (7% viognier, 7% sauvignon blanc, 86% chenin blanc). We hand-picked all the fruit at the same time. We chilled it overnight to enhance finesse and aroma, placed it on a sorting table and hand sorted the fruit. The fruit was then cold pressed as whole bunches and the juice was left to settle and ferment naturally. Once fermentation began, the wine was transferred to French oak. There were only 10 barrels made. Only one barrel underwent secondary (malolactic) fermentation and the barrels were hand stirred every few weeks to enhance creaminess, texture and vanilla/butterscotch characters. After 10 months on oak the wine was bottled into top-quality French bottles with Czech crystal stoppers and coated with a wax seal.”
The 2013 is tiring a little now but impressed me when it was released in 2014. The wine has been made every year since 2018 and always scored a high silver or gold ribbon. It’s a great addition to the Australian chenin blanc story and I suspect has inspired other winemakers to have a go at making ‘incredible’ chenin.
Comentários