‘The Velvet Fog’ was produced from one of Elena’s best Adelaide Hills vineyards in Kersbrook; this site embodies the very best in cutting edge-meets-old school viticulture and winemaking. The 2023 growing season was one of vagaries in Adelaide Hills; shoot growth and development of flowers was drawn out due to cold weather as well as wet conditions which persisted into early December. After fruit set, the remainder of the season was pretty dry, but crop levels were impacted somewhat due to adverse weather at flowering. Cool temperatures into the fall delayed harvests, which was advantageous for phenolic ripeness of Pinot Noir.
The bunches were hand harvested with half of them being destemmed and the remaining portion fermented entirely whole-cluster. The fermentations occurred in small open-top stainless-steel tanks and after 10 days on the skins the lots were basket-pressed to a mix of 2nd and 3rd use French oak barriques. The wine aged for seven months without any additions and was bottled without fining and just a small sulfur addition and filtration.