2021 Parley Velour
WINEMAKER: Joss, Mel & Sarah
REGION: Adelaide Hills, SA
VARIETAL: Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot
VITICULTURE: Organic
Incredibly expressive with violets, grilled plums and lilacs on the nose met with a vibrant palate of raspberries, blackberries & dark plums. A fine tannin backbone holds the wine strongly alongside the fruit and spice with a gentle acid line bringing it all together.
This vineyard is a labour of love for us. Not only is it the first vineyard planted in Basket Range (1980 by Phil Broderick), it’s also the vineyard we organically manage ourselves - pruning, spraying, netting and picking all by hand. We’ve worked hard to bring this vineyard back to life by retraining watershoots and carefully managing the Eutypa that’s found home within the vineyard. We couldn’t be prouder of the vines and the fruit they’re worked so hard to produce.
The fruit was hand destemmed into a flower pot and macerated on skins for 14 days; with gentle cap management twice daily. Once dry it was gently pressed off using a hand basket press and aged in seasoned French barriques for 11 months, with bottling taking place in February of 2022.
To ‘parley’ is to hold a conference with opposing sides to discuss terms. As a team of three we got really good at that. We were all wearing many hats at the start of the 2021 vintage - Mel, a brilliant student was in her third year of Viticulture and Oenology at The University of Adelaide, working for Commune of Buttons, Son of Dot Drinks and a mother to be. Sarah was running The Summertown Aristologist and working with Les Fruits. And Joss, at one point, balancing 4 simultaneous jobs and a vintage at Gentle Folk.
Needless to say we needed one another to get things done and swift decision making became our forte. Finding time in our already overcomplicated schedules, we made wine and managed to do it with finesse. For the last year we have been continuously bouncing off one another, discussing and seeking solutions to obstacles and finding consonance in our decisions. We suppose in essence, we are one big Parley.