Winemaker Notes
This year's Bianco Pet Nat so bright and clean – intense tropical and citrus fruit bursting from the glass, it just screams drink me. Perfect beady, fuzzy fizz pops in the mouth, where the fruits are present but increasingly we see more of the herbaceous, savory, moreish characters come through. Fresh, persistent, delicious – a wine made for sunshine savoring.
Fermented in stainless steel with wild vineyard yeast, the wine was bottled under crown seal to finish ferment, resulting in the Petillant Naturel, lightly sparkling style.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Quite the powerhouse region thanks to its proximity to the Murray River (and thus irrigation potential), Riverland produces over half of South Australia’s total annual harvest. While its warm Mediterranean climate promotes large volume production, many smaller, premium producers abound. Australia’s usual suspects—Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet—do great but a continuing local push for heat-loving Italian varieties like Vermentino and Nero d’Avola promises future diversity.