Wildflower St Walter 2020: Shiraz, St Florence 2020: Riesling, St Florence 2020: Pinot Grigio and St Florence 2020: Gewurztraminer will be available online and for take-away/collection from 12pm (Sydney time) on Friday 7 May 2021.
These four beers are part of our 'St' series and feature mature, barrel aged Golden Australian Wild ale refermented with while fruit. As all four of these beers are made with wine grapes, they were named for Topher and his wife's children, Florence and Walter. While Florence is the patron of beers made with white wine grapes, Walter dons the labels of those made with red wine grapes.
The four beers we are releasing together this month share a commonality that the fruit for all four comes from the same Ravensworth vineyard in Murrumbateman. These are beyond organically farmed grapes that are a product of the healthy and microbially active soils they are grown in. Honestly have a follow of @bjmart8 on instagram to follow along how he converts cuttings and organic 'waste' from the farm into biochar to sink back into the soils, manages undervine and inter-row cover cropping and reduces compaction of the soil all to assist the microbes in their natural processes and increase the ability of the soil to sequester carbon and provide a nurturing environment for any plant life above ground.
The only reason we were able to source and work with these fruits; however, was due to the fact they had been rendered useless for making wine as they had excess smoke exposure that, if fermented, would create non-preferable aromas and flavours in the wine. However, I was not able to watch a beautiful crop go to waste and instead we mainly made a series of collaborative beers with Bryan (Bright Side- Info here) as well as made these four cuvees with some of the other varietals. The four St's below differ with the Bright Side beers as they use different fruit (different clones with Riesling and Shiraz) as well as having different bases, barrel aged Gold in the case of the St's and fresh Gold in the case of the Bright Side beers.
Below you will find tasting notes and more information on each beer.
Wildflower St Walter 2020: Shiraz
St Walter was made in a method we have come to adopt for wine grape beer refermentations. The organic 'smoke tainted' fruit for this beer comes from Bryan Martin's Ravensworth vineyard in Murrumbaetman. After being hand picked on 12 March, we put the fruit into a three week carbonic maceration before racking barrel 1740 (8 month old Gold) onto the semi-fermenting fruit on 1 April 2020. The beer and grapes macerated and refermented together for three+ months. The grape beer was then transferred off the fruit and washed with barrels 1863, 1870 (17 month old Gold), 1756 (4 month old Gold) and 1816 (11 month old Gold) before bottling on 20 August 2020 and allowed to condition in bottle for 8 months before release.
Cherry, fennel, graphite and dark spice. Forestry and deep, clear farmhouse funk in support. Sweet red fruits, rhubarb and raspberry combine with gentle blood orange flavours. Good carbonation with a long driving finish full of oak and dark earthy savouriness from the aged gold base.
St Walter 2020: Shiraz is packaged in 375ml bottles. There are 350 bottles available online and 180 at our cellar door. It will also be offered to our lovely wholesale stockists across Australia. There are also 6 x 1.5 litre magnums available online.
Wildflower St Florence 2020: Riesling
St Florence was made in a method we have come to adopt for wine grape beer refermentations. The organic 'smoke tainted' fruit for this beer comes from Bryan Martin's Ravensworth vineyard in Murrumbaetman. After being hand picked on 12 March, we put the fruit into a three week carbonic maceration before racking barrels 1862 (22 month old Gold) onto the semi-fermenting fruit on 1 April 2020. The beer and grapes macerated and refermented together for three+ months. The grape beer was then transferred off the fruit and washed with barrels 1829 (4 month old Gold), 1850 (4 month old Gold) and 1859 (4 month old Gold) before bottling on 20 August 2020 and allowed to condition in bottle for 8 months before release.
At release it has aromas of grilled pineapple, a creamy, savoury nose. Piney flavours, good weight and presence on the palate, light skins phenolic, a touch of stalkiness and grilled stone fruit.
St Florence 2020: Riesling is packaged in 375ml bottles. There are 300 bottles available online and 180 at our cellar door. It will also be offered to our lovely wholesale stockists across Australia. There are also 5 x 1.5 litre magnums available online.
Wildflower St Florence 2020: Pinot Grigio
St Florence was made in a method we have come to adopt for wine grape beer refermentations. The organic 'smoke tainted' fruit for this beer comes from Bryan Martin's Ravensworth vineyard in Murrumbaetman. After being hand picked on 12 March, we put the fruit into a three week carbonic maceration before racking a portion of barrel 1835 (9 month old Gold) onto the semi-fermenting fruit on 1 April 2020. The beer and grapes macerated and refermented together for three+ months. The grape beer was then transferred off the fruit and washed with a portion of barrel 1768 (9 month old Gold) before bottling on 16 September 2020 and allowed to condition in bottle for 7 months before release.
At its release it has a great dark golden colour, nutty nose, earthy, savoury. Pear drop, creamy, vanilla cake flavours, late tropical fruit on the palate. Very balanced, with nice integration.
St Florence 2020: Pinot Grigio is packaged in 375ml bottles. There are 250 bottles available online and 120 at our cellar door. A very small amount will also be offered to our lovely wholesale stockists across Australia.
Wildflower St Florence 2020: Gewurztraminer
St Florence was made in a method we have come to adopt for wine grape beer refermentations. The organic 'smoke tainted' fruit for this beer comes from Bryan Martin's Ravensworth vineyard in Murrumbaetman. After being hand picked on 12 March, we put the fruit into a three week carbonic maceration before racking a portion of barrel 1774 (20 month old Gold) onto the semi-fermenting fruit on 1 April 2020. The beer and grapes macerated and refermented together for three+ months. The grape beer was then transferred off the fruit and washed with a portion of barrel 1768 (9 month old Gold) before bottling on 16 September 2020 and allowed to condition in bottle for 7 months before release.
It's nose has hints of apple, floral classic skinsy, Gewurztraminer character, candied orange/mandarin with a touch of smoke on nose late. Right palate, very fruity, sweet citrus, citrusy acid finish, very refreshing, a bit of burnt twig at the end.
St Florence 2020: Gewurztraminer is packaged in 375ml bottles. There are 200 bottles available online and 80 at our cellar door. Sorry no wholesale.
