2022 State of Nature Sunspot Chardonnay

WINEMAKER: Vasily Sekerin
REGION: Adelaide Hills, SA
VARIETY: Chardonnay
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

This wine is special. Harvested early from the steepest part of the vineyard with thinner soils, the fruit was fermented in seasoned oak to preserve the natural character. Lots of lees work provides ample texture, whilst the soil lends to the wines unique minerality.

In 2018 Mark and Vas Sekerin made their first home wine. Neither one of them had any winemaking experience, but armed with a few demijohns, a hand-cranked de-stemmer and a creaking basket press the father-son team dove head in. They both fell in love with the process, finding it fun, challenging and exciting. The first year only 200 bottles were made. This wine was all drank by friends and family and the idea of State of Nature was born.

State of Nature is based in the Picadilly Valley, where the Sekerin’s tend to a 1.6h vineyard of premium Chardonnay. The vineyard was converted to organic practices in 2017 When the family took over looking after the vineyard from Petaluma. The vineyard is situated at 500m above sea level on a NW slope, and showed great potential to produce high quality fruit. 

The vineyard has since been only pruned by hand, and the yields were restricted. Sheep were used for majority of the year to manage grass. Shoots and snails were managed by hands. We farm organically, and participate in everything that goes on in the vineyard, outsourcing only if we don’t have the equipment to do ourselves, and even then we help. We do our own pruning and maintenance. It’s also where we make our wine.