2021 was a year that if it was just measured by the quality of the wine, it would be a 10/10. The flipside of ‘measuring’ the vintage though was the yields, which were drastically low. Regular winter rainfall, followed by an unseasonably cold and cloudy spring kept bud levels very low. Flowering came at a slightly later date but was heavily affected by strong winds, blowing what few flowers actually bloomed off of the vines. The result was a vintage that started well behind the proverbial eight-ball. Summer was very dry but stayed relatively cool resulting in healthy vines with no disease or water stress. There was a slow progression into Autumn with a long drawn out ripening period where the fruit reached optimum ripeness in perfect harvest conditions. The vintage was amongst the best ever recorded for sheer quality but the lowest in recorded history for yields and production.
The fruit was hand-harvested and fermented at cool temperatures with a house cultured native yeast in stainless-steel tanks was utilized to retain the fresh varietal aromatics. This was balanced by a portion of the fruit subjected to traditional winemaking practices: whole bunch pressed and fermented in seasoned oak barrels, adding texture and length to the wine. The wine aged on its gross lees for five months and was racked to tank to settle naturally. It was bottled without fining and with a coarse filtration and small sulfur addition.