Winemaker Notes
White-gold, hinting at a certain, distant lustrousness. On the nose, honeysuckle, bath salts, lantana, green hardy herbs, minerals, slate freshly clinked. Geology and botany entwined. Soaring aromatics that really want to sing. Clean acidity and lemony length. Some green apple skin texture in the background. Effortless interplay between the underplayed pineapple and gooseberry fruits and the long, stretching acidity. It is both a white wine that wants to refresh but also wants to comfort.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Preserved lemon, white peach and orchard-blossom aromas open this fruity Roussanne, with subtle lanolin and spice notes behind. The palate is full bodied, like a Chardonnay in weight, but with different shape and texture, lemon oil, salt and white-spice flavors.
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Australian Wine Companion
A brisk, crisp roussanne, pale in the glass and showing plenty of pure citrus drive along with notes of honeysuckle, white flowers, crushed stone, marzipan, green apple and whiffs of almond paste and oyster shell. There's a gentle slink of texture on the palate and a wee wash of Epsom salts and something estery, before the wine coils and sails off with a tight, racy acid beat.
Full and silky in body but also charmingly crisp, Roussanne is native to the Rhône Valley of France. It is responsible for some of the finest Northern Rhône white wines. Roussanne adds richness and acidity to Marsanne’s soft, fruitiness, making age worthy and highly respected whites. Somm Secret—Roussanne takes its name from the French word, roux, meaning rouge or red because of the berry’s pink glow. In California, virtually all of the 339 acres of Roussanne come from true clones brought over by Tablas Creek and John Alban.
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.