Øst sounds like it could be the name of a character in Game of Thrones, a brutish man with a long beard, bearing a sword on his hip. In reality, it’s a 300-year-old family middle name on the Deichmann brothers’ mom’s side of the family. It means “East.” Suddenly, the name takes on a softer, gentler quality. Uffe and Jens knew they wanted to dedicate a wine to their grandmother, an avid Riesling drinker, but they wanted to do it in a way that honored their penchant for quirky winemaking. So, a skin contact Riesling it was. Despite the subtle tannin and high acidity, this wine remains wonderfully delicate.
The Riesling is hand harvested from the K1 vineyard in the Kuitpo Forrest, Adelaide Hills. It ferments naturally on the skins for 28 days (after gentle foot stomping and hand-plunging). It is then pressed directly into large format oak where the wine is handled oxidatively. It stayed on the lees for 12 months of aging. The wine was bottled without fining or filtering, and with a very small sulfur addition.