We are excited to announce that Wildflower St Walter 2021: Pinot Noir (Kooyong) will be available online and for take-away/collection at our cellar door from 12pm (Sydney time) on Friday 3 December 2021.
St Walter is an Australian Wild Ale refermented with red wine grapes. It is named for Topher and his wife Bernadette's first son and the Saint Walter was an 11th century monk from the Loire Valley in France and is the patron saint of vintners.
It has been 3 years since we've made a beer with Pinot Noir grapes so it was with much excitement that we received a bin of Kooyong's estate Pinot Noir earlier this year. It was some of the most beautiful fruit we have ever had the pleasure of working with and is the first time we have worked with whole fruit from outside NSW.
Luke Hipper, our barrel manager, longest standing employee, tasting note expert, cornerstone and friend worked at Kooyong as a winemaker before coming to Wildflower in 2017. We have wanted to make this beer since, but difficult vintages for various reasons make this the first time to marry his two last places of craft. Huge thanks to Glen Hayley and the wider Kooyong/Port Phillip Estate teams for making it happen ❤️.
2021 G5V15 whole bunch Pinot Noir from Kooyong, 3 week carbonic maceration, five month refermentation/maceration of aged ale and fruit, blended with 18 month old Gold aged on Kooyong's 2020 Farrago Chardonnay lees, bottled September 2021.
At release, this beer has a delicate, pretty nose. Soft red fruits, cranberry, blueberry and fresh raspberries move with plum skins, aromatic cherry, marzipan almond/cherry stone aromas that layer with a spice element, stalky almost. Woody but perfumed, delicate but broody. Mild oak adds to the truly engaging nose. Not a fruit forward beer... structured and focussed instead. Sour cherry core, backed by raspberry and dried floral notes. An engaging, long palate with an engaging phenolic spice element, a cleansing acidity brings it to a close. A beer to sit on and savour.
Label artwork by Walter's mom, Benny.
Like all our beers, St Walter 2021: Pinot Noir (Kooyong) is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
Enjoy.
