We are excited to announce that Wildflower St Florence 2021: Semillon (Tyrrells) and Wildflower St Florence 2021: Semillon (M&J Becker) will be available online and for take-away/collection at our cellar door from 12pm (Sydney time) on Friday 5 November 2021.
St Florence is an Australian Wild Ale refermented with white wine grapes. It is named for Topher and his wife's first daughter and the Saint Florence was a 7th century abbess from Cartagena, Spain.
There is a notable difference in this year’s fruit expression as we handled the fruit much more oxidatively than we have in the past pre-maceration with beer, techniques more at home with making skin contact white wines rather than Beaujolais carbonic maceration style. We also blended equal portions of the same barrels onto these fruits in order to limit the variation between the two vineyards other than the fruit itself.
With huge gratitude, we were again able to pick a bin of grapes in Johnno’s Vineyard at Tyrrell's Estate, making this the third release of St Florence with this exact same fruit. In addition, and out of interest to me, we also picked certified organic Semillon from the Ablington Vineyard managed by Meg and James Becker of M&J Becker Wines. After meeting them at an Annandale Cellars festival a number of years back, we are lucky to call these wonderful people friends and feel quite fortunate to source fruit from their home. If you visit our cellar door in the coming weeks, you can also taste a wine we made from this same organic fruit.
Both beers utilise 125kg of handpicked, whole bunch Semillon. Blended, post-their own maceration with barrel 1835 (10 month old Gold) and a puncheon of one year old beer fermented by and on the skins of last year's St Florence Semillon 2020. A nice rounding touch.
Tyrrell's
At release this beer shows aromatic notes of melon, white strawberry, kiwi. Lifted aromatic stalk spice with a skinsy high note. Complex citrus and vinous overtones. A very different palate than previous vintages of this beer. Broad, textured and deep. Bright carbonation gives big energy to the palate. Citrus dominant with integrated oak. Savoury toasty nuttiness and light phenolic grip to close.
M&J Becker
Very spicy, nutty aromatics. Noticeable oxidative aromas melding with elements of tomato bush, coriander and gentle citrus. Direct and lively. The palate races along, citrus forward. Textured with weight, big flavours of vanilla and passion fruit seed. Incredibly similar vinous elements to the Tyrrell's. Dry but with great persistence.
Both of these are quite small bottlings and we only have 120 bottles available of each online with a limit of 2 bottles per person.
Like all our beers, these are best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
