Our Optimist vineyard was planted in 1977 on a south-east facing slope that sits below some native scrub. It is a very protected site and much cooler than other parts of our vineyard .
These robust old vines produce a delightful crop in most years. The yields are low but the resulting wine is of concentration and intensity, the flavours are much less tropical than the chenin blanc we source from Blewitt Springs for example.
We typically see pear, apple, wet stone and then with some bottle age honey and lanolin flavours. The 2016 was handpicked and pressed in seasoned oak for fermentation – the wine matured in oak for 9 months prior to bottling. The wine is then held for two years in bottle in our cellar prior to release. Buy it here.
In 2018 we bottled our second Shiraz Fiano co-ferment.
The Shiraz comes from our contour block, planted in 1967, which typically shows spicy, fragrant notes. We accentuate this further with the addition of some fiano skins into the ferment. The result is a lively and lush shiraz that is medium plus in body with lots of soft tannin to balance the fruit.
In most years we produce a Shiraz Fiano co-ferment that finds its way into our of our shiraz labels. In 2018 the parcel looks so convincing that we keep a small parcel separate for bottling on its own. Winefront gave it 94 points: “It’s medium to full-bodied, but nice and fresh, at once silky and earthy. Blackberry, boysenberry, dried herb, something a little floral, red and black berries, subtle amaro bitterness, tannin laying down the grip on the long finish. Has energy, depth and a cool feel. Coriole are really in top form at present.”
2018 gave us a great opportunity to create a co-ferment of four of our favoured Italian red varieties. The season was relatively late and the four varieties ripened at the same time.
We picked the four parcels together and co-fermented in a small open top fermenter. We hand plunged and then pressed off into seasoned oak for eight months prior to bottling.
This medium bodied wine shows a very attractive perfume of rosehip and sweet spice. The palate is fine with succulent tannin and lots of dark cherry fruits.
A great wine with cured meats or would work equally as well with lighter game such as quail or rabbit. Buy it here.
We only produced 2 barrels of straight Grenache from 2017. (The balance of the fruit finds its way into our Dancing Fig blend.)
We have a long yet tumultuous relationship with grenache. The variety was originally planted at Coriole the 1800s and was then pulled out and then replanted in the 1920s.
During the 1980s grenache has a particularly bad run and after years of leaving the fruit on the vine to rot the decision was made to pull out the grenache and replace with Shiraz and Sangiovese of all things!
During the late 1990s-early 2000s we sourced some fantastic grenache from what is now the Yangarra High Sands vineyard. When this vineyard changed hands we lost our source and as such planted three small bush-vine vineyards on the estate - Hill Top, Stone Wall and Old House. It’s only been the last few years that we’ve become excited about the variety as these vineyards start to show some maturity. James Halliday appears to agree: "Beautiful hue, silky mouthfeel; rainbow array of red fruits and savoury/spicy finish. What a vintage. What a wine." - 97 points”
Needless to say our small production sold out very quickly- if you would like to be informed when the stunning 2018 is released please let us know. Email us here.