Moorilla Winemaking

Traditional and modern thinking combine in the creation of each of our wines. Small batch ferments allow us to elevate the quality threshold and control over each production stage. Finished wines are blended according to style in order to create our two streams of high range varietal products. Each series finely illustrates the principles of a cool climate wine: natural balance and refined varietal character.

Our Muse series is blended according to an Old World philosophy, resulting in a more sophisticated and bottle maturable product. These artistic wines present a more thoughtful spectrum of flavour and aroma. They push the boundaries of winemaking and unite the Moorilla and Museum philosophies.

Conor van der Reest,
Winemaker

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Starting the vintage off were our sparkling base wines. Fruit was picked when flavours balanced with sugar levels. Our new press was put to the test and gave us some great juices. Our two base wines were blended from 6 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, wines were made to show a range of aromas and flavours. As with the sparkling wine bases, all fruit was picked for flavour. 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. For example, our Gewürztraminer was crushed and kept on skins for 5 hrs prior to pressing, while the Pinot gris had a full 6 hrs 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 500L barrels for use in white winemaking, where before we were limited to barrels of 225L. These larger barrels give a much more subtle oak influence, yet give a more noticeable palate contribution. We managed to split the Pinot gris into 5 separate batches for fermentation (30% old oak, 70% Stainless steel) and the Sauvignon blanc had 6 batches (15% oak fermented, 60% of that new oak). All whites were kept on lees for a number of weeks for lees stirring.

Currently, the winery is working on finishing the blending of all of these batches and working towards getting them into bottle.

2008 has also brought to us some 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. 45 different ferments took place in open vats and barrels. Varying percentages of whole berries or whole clusters were fermented with crushed and destemmed fruit to give a huge range of options for the creation of our finished blends. All of our red wines have now finished their secondary ferments (malo-lactic fermentation) and are now earning a deserved rest in French barriques. Again, new oak purchases this year have given us larger barrels that will give less pronounced oak influence. We have also sourced fruit from 11 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. Our only disappointment this year was with part of our Shiraz crop. While one parcel came in perfectly ripe and full of rich flavours, our other parcel did not have complete ripeness. 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 and a half 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 full and rich bodied rose. This wine shows some great potential and will be released as a Praxis range Shiraz. And as we're suckers for punishment we're still not finished vintage 2008 yet! We are currently fermenting and expect fruit for our basket press Botrytis Riesling will continue to arrive into July. Stay tuned.