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Poppelvej

2021

‘Only Shallow’

Skin-Contact Viognier   |   Adelaide Hills - Australia

About

There is skin contact and there is real skin contact.  This falls into the latter…99 days to be exact.  Where did this crazy idea stem from and especially with a hyper aromatic grape like Viognier?  It started in 2019 while having a listening session to My Bloody Valentine’s epic ‘Loveless’ album and the opening track titled, ‘Only Shallow.’  The layers of guitar and manner in which the song builds is purely the inspiration a year later to produce a skin-contact white wine that is so intense yet still delicate.  Uffe located a relatively cool-climate vineyard in the southern part of the Adelaide Hills near a small town called Macclesfield.  The farmer has been farming it for the past decade without any insecticides or herbicides and fully sustainably.  Uffe knew this was going to be the site for this wine the moment he saw it, as what else would you do with Viognier?

The fruit was hand-harvested the first week of March and fully destemmed into one-ton plastic bins with daily foot trodding for nine days followed by gentle hand plunging for nine days.  The wine fermented without any additions and once it went dry, after roughly nine days, the fruit and juice was then transferred to sealed stainless-steel tanks to mature a further 72 days on skins.  The wine was finally pressed at this time and the free run and pressed juice was racked to old French 300L barrels to finish maturation.  After three months in wood the wine was bottled without fining or filtration and just a small sulfur addition.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Viognier
  • Vineyard: A single site in Macclesfield
  • Vine Age: 30-years-old
  • Soil Type: Brownish fine loam
  • Viticulture: Sustainable
  • Fermentation: Native – one-ton open-top bins
  • Skin Contact: 99 days total
  • Aging: 10 weeks in stainless-steel followed by 3 months in neutral oak
  • Alcohol: 10%
  • pH: 3.66
  • Total Acidity: 5.59 g/L
  • Total SO2: 22 ppm
  • Total Production: 158 cases

Tasting Note

Cloudy and marigold in color but lively on the nose and palate.  Aromas of grapefruit zest, rich stone fruits with the fuzzy skin, kumquat, sea spray and hints of fresh ginger are truly captivating.  Rarely does a full-on skin-contact white emerge with this much freshness and acidity (not of the volatile type).  It is lively and refreshing while still carrying textural richness.

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