Farfalla 2019 Vermentino Alpine Valleys
Creamy rich white with complexity
Grapefruit, orange blossoms, pickled ginger and seashell
Creamy, layered, textural and lush
Made for wintery days when you feel like drinking white wine
Drink me with firm fish swimming in a rich sauce
91 pts Halliday Jeni Port
“Hand picked, 50% destemmed, fermented in open-top vat on skins, matured in seasoned French oak. The winemaker pursues phenolics and savoury leesy characters in her vermentino, giving us a different view of the grape, one that is truly exciting. A world of savoury citrus discovered here of spiced, preserved lemons, grapefruit pith, poached pear with ginger snap that is complex with a waxy mouthfeel. Imaginative, fun wine label. Imaginative winemaker, too”
Vermentino is one of the most fun grapes to make wine from. It’s so incredibly versatile and from a winemaker’s perspective, that means freedom to play around with different styles and techniques and most of the time, still get an amazing wine!
This Vermentino was made in a similar way to how you would make a Chardonnay in that we fermented 50% of the juice in barrel with regular lees stirring (stirring the dead yeast cells to get creaminess and mid palate weight) and so if you are a Chardonnay lover, you will definitely love this wine. However we did shake things up a bit by fermenting the other 50% of the juice on skins, which means that we made the wine like you would made a red wine. We destemmed the grapes, tipped them into a plastic tub and then plunged them daily to bring out the other skinsy characters like pickled ginger, orange peel and some spiciness as well as lots of texture which is why this wine is such an awesome food wine. After the fermentation of this skinsy portion, we pressed it out and then racked it back to barrel for maturation for another 10 months, along side the straight barrel portion. In that period of time, it went through full malolactic fermentation which is a second fermentation that gives white wine all those buttery characters and then after ten months maturation, we tasted through all the barrels and as always, each barrel tasted completely different which is why we just love barrel fermenting white wines. You just get so much more complexity and layers to the wine once you blend it all back together again.
This is a grown up style of Vermentino. It’s still fresh and has all those lovely lemony briny characters that make Vermentino what it is, but the barrel ferment, lees stirring, full malo and skin contact make this Vermentino really stand out from the more lighter fruitier versions out there. It goes well with oysters because of the creaminess in both the wine and the oyster, but make sure you get oysters that are full of flavour rather than just full of cream. It also goes amazingly with any buttery fish or chicken dish especially if you add some of this Vermentino into the sauce whilst you are cooking it! This isn’t a wine to take to the beach - grab a bottle of the Octopus Vermentino for that. This is a wine that you sup on once you have got back from the beach, washed all the sand out of your hair and are now in your fancy beach dressing gown whilst overlooking the ocean thinking about what to do next!
Read more about the different styles of Vermentino in our blog:
Vermentino Unveiled: It's all about lemon, sea spray and so much more...
