2016 Breaking Ground Barbera
NEW RELEASE
Wine Profile
Our Breaking Ground Range celebrates our focus on innovation pioneering alternative wines and wine styles.
I love single vineyard wines as they carry a sense of place. Our Barbera from the winery block encapsulates our identity and signature style. We planted this vineyard in 1998 - a first for the Hunter Valley. The cuttings came from a vineyard planted in Mudgee which were carefully ‘imported’ from Piedmonte, in an Italian grapegrowers suitcase. So it has an authentic Italian pedigree. Our first vintage was 2001 and after a few early challenges I now understand its Italian DNA. The wine stands out for its naturally high acidity and ripe, savoury fruit characters, unusual in Australian reds. It’s a perfect food wine.
Region
Broke Fordwich, Hunter Valley
Vineyard
Winery Block, Ceres Hill Vineyard
Tasting Notes
Medium bodied with bramble, allspice and red fruits notably cherry, underpinned by a savoury earthiness which expresses the rich, volcanic soils of this vineyard. The oak is subtle and is maintained by the natural bright acidity of the variety.
Colour Medium purple
Nose Beetroot, black cherry and star anise
Palate Maraschino cherry, red currents, star anise and charred oak with subtle tannins and bright acidity to the finish.
Food Match
Savoury notes and high acidity make this the perfect pizza wine. It also works a treat with rich, red meat dishes with a lot of fat and hard cheese.
Cellaring
10 to 15 years due to the natural acidity of the wine
Winemakers Notes
2016 was a cooler vintage, but a good vintage for reds in the Hunter resulting in more elegant spice driven styles. We hand picked the grapes at full ripeness and fermented under cool conditions using cultured aromatic yeast. The wine was placed in a mixture of one year old American and French oak barriques where it matured for 20 months prior to bottling. This wine will age well due to the high acidity however can also be enjoyed now.
Alcohol – 14.5 % pH- 3.51 TA – 6.8 g/l