Provenance Pinot Gris report
This report was written at the request of and published in the Australian Wine Industry Journal
Since arriving in the Geelong region for vintage 1995 Pinot Gris has been a variety that has in equal parts intrigued, perplexed and challenged me as a winemaker.
Pinot Gris is a variety that covers a vast array of wine styles ranging from low alcohol slaty numbers through to rich viscous sweet ripe wines. While looking internationally for benchmarks to try and understand the variety proved to be an interesting experience, with many evenings around the table consuming a diverse range of wines, nothing jumped out and said apply these techniques to Geelong fruit and people will want to drink it.
My first winemaking attempts were aimed at a less ripe finer style, harvested at approximately 11.5 0Be, resulting in a wine that in my view was a little non-descript. Next I trialled oak and various yeasts on fruit that was picked a bit riper, the newer oak was overbearing and the yeast trial showed what a blank canvas aromatically the fruit I was working with was. As the vintages passed I progressively picked the fruit riper and riper until in 2000 we harvested at 14.2 0Be. At this point I realised the quest for fruit flavour and palate richness had come at the expense of finesse and palate structure.
Viticulture
Grapes for Provenance Pinot Gris are from a vineyard planted in 1986 in the Moorabool Valley approximately 10 km north of the township of Bannockburn. The clone is IV6 on its own roots and is VSP trained. The topsoil consists of a shale slate/river loam deposit over yellow clay subsoil. The depth of the topsoil varies considerably across the vineyard, the closer to the surface the subsoil the tougher the vine has to work. With Pinot Gris, crop load is critical to resultant wine concentration, therefore because of the variable soils pruning is very much done on a vine by vine basis. It’s been found on this site that cane pruning to an average of approximately 18 buds per vine gives reliable, controllable yields. The aim is for 2.5 tonne per acre. In some years excessive bunch weight leads to uneven ripening, in this situation the greener fruit is dropped around veraison. The vineyard site, being at the bottom of a valley gets quite warm days and very cool nights, we believe this is a positive terroir parameter, affecting flavour development. In some years early season frost can be a problem. Being a low summer rainfall region minimal irrigation is applied when needed to maintain a working canopy. A preventative spray program including Copper and Sulfur is utilised, powdery mildew makes early season sprays critical. The fruit is handpicked, which helps minimise colour pickup from the skins. Harvest is normally the third week in March.
Winemaking
Harvested fruit is sprayed with 50ppm SO2 as it enters the destemmer crusher, the fruit is 100% destemmed, and crushed to a central membrane, perforated drum airbag press, this style of press helps in our aim to minimise skin contact. No distinction is made between freerun and pressings. Yields are around 650 litres per tonne. Depending on the year tartaric acid can be required; we aim for around 3.20 pH. The juice is roughly cold settled in tank overnight and approximately 50% of the clears is racked to old oak the next day. This portion is left to be fermented by indigenous yeast. The balance has the free SO2 adjusted to around 20ppm and is cold settled to fairly bright. This juice is then racked, warmed to 16 oC and seeded, once ferment is established tank cooling is used to keep the temperature to around 14 oC through the height of ferment. Depending on ambient conditions, the barrels may reach 22 oC. Ferments are assessed daily and use of DAP is avoided. We look for the tank to provide fruitfulness and the barrels to provide complexity. Post primary ferment the yeast lees are stirred in both tank and barrel weekly, until early July. Blending is assessed and takes place in August. Once the final blend is in tank and holding 30 ppm free SO2 the acid/pH is adjusted by lab trial and bentonite is added @ 1.0 g/litre. Cooling is turned on and the wine is cold stabilised. When the wine is cold stabilised it is racked off bentonite lees and earth filtered through fine earth. Prior to bottling CO2 levels are adjusted and the wine is bottled through membrane filters.
Marketing
The package uses antique green premium Burgundy 750ml bottles and as soon as these were available with a screw cap finish, the move was made to use branded screw caps. The artwork on the label is a section of a digital collage created by Murray McKeich, a lecturer in digital art at RMIT, who was commissioned by Provenance Wines in 1997. Although the label artwork is complex it has been well received in the market place. The label information is aimed at promoting the region of Geelong as well as the brand. Twelve bottle stand-up cartons featuring the entire collage are used. Market place penetration has been growing well on the back of some excellent reviews for Provenance Pinot Gris.
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