2021 Bande Apart Pinot Meunier

WINEMAKER: Jess DiGiorgio
VARIETAL: Pinot Meunier
REGION: Adelaide Hills, SA
VITICULTURE: Organic

Hand-picked and chilled overnight, destemmed (not crushed), whole berry wild fermentation in stainless steel, pressed into old French oak for 8 months, racked off solids and bottled without fining or filtration.

Defined red fruits most notably of dried Alpine strawberry and fresh raspberry, sweet charred earth and a graphite-like minerality. Plenty of spice and white pepper complementing the classic Meunier wildness. Moreish and open on the palate with a line of vibrant acidity.

"What a great name for a wine label ‘Bande Apart’, which translates to Band of Outsiders. Being French it is impossible for me to forget the classic movie with the same title, made in the sixties by Jean Luc Godard which focuses on a small group of people who do something different from the rest of the ‘normal people’. This is exactly what Jess DiGiorgio does with her label. Sourcing fruit from different grape varieties and regions outside her own, creating small batch wines in her own style.

Although 2019 was her first release, Jess is not new to the wine industry. Growing up in the Limestone Coast amongst a family of growers and winemakers, her grandparents were first vine growers, before making wine in the late nineties. Always interested in wine, but keen to take a different path, Jess was a physiotherapist for a few years, travelling and working all over Australia. She came back home to help with one vintage and realised that this was her happy place and ultimately what she wanted to do in the future. It was travelling to France to do vintage with Andrew Nielson from Le Grappin, an Aussie winemaker living and residing in Burgundy, that really sealed the deal." - Paul Hervy