During the 2023 harvest we were offered the opportunity to work with a new variety for us - Grillo. It is an ancient white varietal that originates from the island of Sicily and only has a very small handful of vineyards growing it in Australia. Adriana is also of Sicilian heritage, so she was very keen to work with the variety and pay a little homage to her grandparents.

Our main focus will always be fruit grown from our home vineyard, but when something like this comes from left field it is a great chance for some experimentation and learning. The fruit itself is from the Mildura region and it is the second harvest off a young vineyard at 6 years. The sandy soils and warm and dry growing conditions of Mildura suit the variety and has resulted in some really intensely flavoured fruit.

In terms of the winemaking, we destemmed the fruit and then left the berries to soak in the juice for 8 days of skin-contact, during which fermentation was well underway. We then pressed the fruit and let the clear juice complete fermentation in stainless tank. The wine was then left to settle for 8 months before being bottled directly from the vessel.

True to form the wine shows lovely lifted fruit ripeness, reminiscent of citrus blossom, grapefruit and apricot which is balanced by texture from the skin contact and lovely salinity wrapped around bright natural acidity. A really beautifully balanced wine that walks the line between richness and finesse perfectly.

500 bottles filled // ABV 11.2% // 15ppm sulfur added prior to bottling

Lino print artwork ‘Ode to Calendula’ by the exceptionally talented Dalee Ella @dalee.ella.printmaker

Adriana & Al xo