Tasting Notes
The overwhelming floral and herbaceous notes are reminiscent of walking into a really amazing florist’s. There are also beguiling fruit notes of passionfruit, yellow peaches and caramelised pineapple and a sense of creamy vanilla. An orange sherbet bomb explodes and releases a wine with complex layered textures and flavours including a bouquet garni made from sage, oregano and thyme which entwines with fresh apricots and unripe white nectarines. The flavours linger on.
Vineyard Notes
Sixmo is a single vineyard of Chardonnay (clone I10V1) sourced from Oakbank in the Adelaide Hills.
Production Notes
The grapes were crushed into a Sonoma Cast Stone egg for a wild yeast fermentation on skins. Once the primary fermentation had completed the egg was topped with wine from the same vineyard and left to macerate on skins for 6 months. During this period, we watched the wine develop into an amazing complex multi-layered Chardonnay that at 6 months on skins looked amazingly fresh and tight. It was at this point we decided to drain and gently press the skins. The resultant wine is Sixmo.
Winemaker Notes
Why the egg: Fermentation creates currents that encourage the fermenting wine to move around. This occurs in all vessels, but it is most effective in an egg. The egg’s shape provides a smooth, continuous surface (without corners), which allows the wine to move more freely than it would in a traditional barrel or tank during fermentation. This constant movement allows complex flavours to develop through continuous contact with lees – much like batonnage or lees stirring.
