The Practice

Growing grapes and making wine is our passion.

The 2008 vintage started with our sparkling base wines, which were hand harvested when flavours balanced with sugar levels. Our Vintage Brut and Rosé base wines were blended from six separate fermentations.

The vintage progressed to our white wines early in March. White wine flavours from 2008 are not as boldly fruit driven as 2007. Instead, all fruit was hand picked when flavours were optimal showing a range of aromas and flavours that will lead to more complex wines. As all of our fruit is handpicked, we have the benefit of being able to chill all of our fruit to low temperatures before processing. Fruit was either whole bunch pressed or crushed and macerated for a few hours to extract more pronounced flavours before pressing.

Our Gewürztraminer was crushed and kept on skins for five hours prior to pressing, while the Pinot gris had a full six hours on skins. All juices were split into multiple ferments and fermented differently in order to maximise blending options. We managed to produce 32 separate batches of Chardonnay!

This year also saw some key changes to how we make a number of white wines. We saw both the Pinot gris and the Sauvignon blanc being partially barrel wild fermented. The barrels used in these ferments were specially ordered; we now have large 500-litre barrels for use in white winemaking, where before we were limited to barrels of 225 litres. These larger barrels give a much more subtle but integrated oak influence and a more noticeable palate contribution.

We split the Pinot gris into five separate batches for fermentation (33% old oak, 66% stainless steel) and the Sauvignon blanc had six batches (15% oak wild-fermented, 60% of that new oak). All whites were kept on lees for lees stirring.

The 2008 vintage delivered very concentrated red wines that show great depth of flavour and intensity, particularly the Bordeaux varieties. As with the whites, small batch ferments will offer extensive choice at blending.

This is no more true than for the Pinot noir where batches were no larger that one tonne. Forty-two different ferments took place in open vats and barrels. Varying percentages of whole berries or whole clusters were fermented with crushed and de-stemmed fruit to give a huge range of options for the creation of our finished blends.

All of our red wines finished their secondary ferments (malo-lactic fermentation) and are maturing in a selection of lightly toasted French barriques. Again, using the larger barrels will give less pronounced oak influence. We have also sourced oak from 13 different cooperages in order to gain as much variations between blends as possible.

The Bordeaux varieties have been particularly outstanding this year and the varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot will be kept separate in oak for as long as possible to give you the best finished blend.

The nature of the Shiraz harvest this year has given us the opportunity to make a Rosé. While one parcel came in perfectly ripe and full of rich flavours, our other parcel displayed floral and spice aromas and flavours better suited to a Rosé [link to purchase page]. As such, we will have two separate Shiraz wines being released for the 2008 vintage.

The first, the Syrah was de-stemmed and crushed; cold soaked and inoculated for a hot ferment. It was left on its skins for three weeks before being pressed into French oak. The wine already shows flavours very similar to the outstanding 2005.

The other wine will be released as a Praxis series Shiraz rosé.

The 2008 vintage finished late with a Botrytis Riesling which was selectively harvested three times between May and July and basket pressed. The wine is now happily maturing in French barriques as our anticipation builds.