2022 Château Acid Bianco

WINEMAKER: Charlie O'Brien & Simon Jones
REGION: Central Ranges, NSW
VARIETY: Vermentino
VITICULTURE: Certified Organic/Biodynamic

"We recently tasted through the last 6 vintages of this wine, from our first in 2017 to this release, and were struck by the very distinct character of this little 1ha jewel of a vineyard and how it's quite apart from other 'orange' wines in Australia. The wine is more savoury, structured and saline than other Vermentino we've come across here and especially compared to most of the 'orange' wine produced in Australia where fruit sweetness tends to dominate with little tannin or length. We think this more closely resembles the Vermentino of Sardinia, if we had to guess we'd put it down to the soils of sandy decomposed granite and the climate, both of which are shared with Gallura, in the Northern part of the island where the variety reaches it's apex in our opinion. The vines work hard in the poor soils and hot sun, we love it when in some years they get sunburned on one side, like in '17 & '19, and this contributes a bitter phenolic flavour to the maceration and golden colour. We also work the skins a few times a day with our hands in the first week of fermentation to pull out these phenolic compounds and the tannins, which end up protecting the wine from oxygen and after a few years in bottle melt away into a complex nectar.

Destemmed to tank and amphora (pictured above), daily hand punchdowns for a week or so then resting on skins for 2-3 weeks. At this point it's basket pressed back to amphora for 10 months. Over the duration of the élevage the wine is untopped, allowing a slow oxygenation to soften the tannins and develop the tertiary characteristics. 20ppm SO2 added at bottling." - Charlie & Simon