2020 The Wine Farm Pétillant Naturel

WINEMAKER: Neil Hawkins
REGION: South Gippsland, VIC
VARIETAL: Pinot Noir
VITICULTURE: Certified Biodynamic

"Due to the difficulty of making large volumes of high quality Pétillant Naturel, there is never enough of this wine to go round. We make just 700 bottles a year – the number we can bottle in two hours. Any more and the prolonged bottling time leads to a disparity in fermentable sugar, meaning the fine-ness of bead between the first and last bottle is significant. Our pét nat is made from 100% Pinot noir, whole bunch pressed and cold fermented to keep the tempo steady so as not to miss the bottling window. The 2020 was bottled at 32–34g/L, with around 24g fermented out creating the 5-6 bar of pressure needed to achieve a fine bead, leaving 8-10 grams of residual sugar.

Importantly the wine was aged for 2.5 years on its lees adding complexity of flavour and texture before being hand riddled and disgorged, resulting in a perfectly clean bottle of bubbles. No Sulphur is added to this wine. The nose is rich with yellow and orange fruits – tamarillo if you want to get really specific – with fine bubbles to carry them." - Neil Hawkins

All the vines on The Wine Farm are planted on their own roots meaning the site expresses itself more truly through the variety, not via the roots of another – something that excites Neil in particular having worked with vines in France, South Africa and New Zealand where barely a single one taps its own roots. To the west of the property lie mineral-rich red soils derived from ancient volcanic mass. To the east, grey loam. In line with ancient folklore, a natural spring has formed at the convergence of these two soil types, meaning The Wine Farm is blessed with a small, perpetually full dam from which we draw water to irrigate our veggies.

One advantage of purchasing an existing vineyard is that for once age is on your side – in our case 20 to 25-year-old roots trucking up the all-important minerals from deep within the soil profile. We farm the vines without the use of insecticides; just copper, sulphur and a pair of hands to combat the mildews. With more emphasis on the latter pair than the former we harness nature’s predators, sun and air, to control powdery and downy mildew respectively.

With a focus on soil rejuvenation and controlling weeds with nothing but a whipper snipper below the vines and a mower deck between them, the essential micro-organisms are allowed to thrive and aid the transfer of minerals from soil to vine and ultimately glass. Under no circumstances whatsoever will we use herbicides, systemic fungicides or insecticides in our vines/on our property. The most important life on The Wine Farm (family and pets aside) is what crawls beneath the soils.