Sweet Pea McLaren Vale Moscato 2018
Tasting Notes
The Sweet Pea is an all-day kind of wine. Have it with brunch with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, lunch as an aperitif or with a strawberry based dessert in the evening. The grapey/ floral characters (with some exotic Turkish delight ) of the wine lend it to all kinds of food, or not. Sling in some gin, lime ice and mint and have a cocktail. Like I said, the Muscat variety is used in Europe to make all styles of wines, and our Sweet Pea shows the same versatility with its ability to match with lots of different foods and occasions.
Vintage
We had above average winter rainfall and although we had a dry June, we recorded decent falls in July and August. Below average rainfall was recorded in spring, and we experienced some warm spring nights. Summer rain tally was also below average despite a wet December. McLaren Vale experienced warm a warm Autumn ripening period with low rainfall. Overall vintage in McLaren Vale produced wine of excellent quality and while total tonnages were down for the season, compared to a wet and fertile 2017, the reports from winemakers on wine quality has been almost universally positive.
Winemaking
Pink to make the boys wink, I say. Our Moscato gets its pink tinge from just a little bit of contact time on the ‘red Fronti’ skins, or as it is more formally known, red Frontignac, or even more formally, Muscat à Petit Grains. Muscat is one of the most widely grown varieties in Europe. The Muscat family of grapes generally shows a lovely grapey/ floral character on the nose. It is versatile and is used to make all styles of wines. In our case, we make, a slightly sweet, spritzy style of wine. The grapes were picked at about 12°Be and allowed a couple of hours skin contact. Fermentation was stopped when the wine achieved approximately 6.5% alcohol, which is practically perfect for this subtle and gently fizzy style of wine.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 8th February 2018
Alc/Vol: 7%
Bottling Date: 20th April 2018