2023 Rural Method di Renzo

The 2023 Rural Method di Renzo is back to the lovely pink hue of Rural Methods of old. In 2023 it’s made up of 50% Chardonnay fruit from the Belmont Vineyard in Orange grown by Jamie Conway and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon from the very cool Winooka Park vineyard which we started managing in 2022. Due to the very cool and wet conditions of 2023 we, made a lot of sparkling wine. The Chardonnay grapes from Belmont were in fact some of the last we picked for the year (usually one of the first picks) illustrating how cool the exposition of this vineyard on the South side of Mt Canobolas / Gaanha Bula is. Winooka Park is also one of the coolest vineyards we work with being south facing at 800m altitude, in Tarana, Wambuul Valley (where Sam currently lives). Caberent is usually one of the latest ripening grapes so when you add, late ripening, cool site and cool year it was a natural choice for us to allocate that fruit to Rural Method.

The Chardonnay was whole bunch pressed to stainless steel where it was combined with the juice from the Caberenet fruit, just pressed after 10 days of carbonic maceration. We then cold stabilised the must, a key step for us to be able to release a Rural Method without any disgorgement prior to a long slow fermentation which lasted about 20 days before bottling.

The wine is then held in bottle for 18 months to build complexity and interest prior to release.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Alcohol:            12%

PH:                   3.62

Total made:      338 dozen

TASTING NOTES

A beautiful magenta pink, this Rural Method is ladened with flavour. A earthly, savoury funk