Sweet Pea McLaren Vale Moscato 2012
Tasting Notes
‘Sweet Pea’ has a delicate nose of blood orange, pink grapefruit and rosewater which moves gently onto a fresh balanced palate. Highly recommended as a breakfast wine, ‘Sweet Pea’ goes well with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, or as an aperitif in the afternoon. It can also be served successfully with a strawberry cheesecake or a cheese plate.
Vintage
It is a massive truism, but really, every vintage is different. Vintage 2012 was condensed into about 8 weeks from go to whoa which meant we had finished crushing all grapes by the end of March. Generally this feat would only be accomplished by the middle to end of April. We had cool conditions up until the end of February then some rain, which did not affect things too much (see vintage 2011)as the whites were already picked and safely in the winery, and reds were unaffected.
Winemaking
This would have to be South Australia’s (if not Australia’s) only single vineyard, organically grown Moscato. We make it using ‘Red Fronty’, which is the McLaren Vale vernacular for Muscat à Petits Grains (red frontignac). This grape variety is common throughout central and eastern Europe, as well as here in Australia. Even though it is a red grape, it is used to make sweet or dry white wines. We use it to make our slightly sweet, gently ‘frizzante’ pink ‘Moscato’ wine. We pick the grapes and allow a couple of hours of skin contact before pressing off and fermenting, which lets us get the gentle pink colour. We stop fermentation when the wine is about 7% alcohol.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 13th March 2012
pH: 3.09
Total Acidity: 6.84 g/L
Alc/Vol: 7%
Bottling Date: 2nd May 2012