2024 Colbiabbin Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso
Chalmers Vineyard, Colbinabbin, Heathcote G.I
A dark and spiced example of this wonderful Friulian native.
- A decant is advised here. -
Dark Olive and Purple hue. The deepest and richest little red wine. The complexity of the perfume makes me stop and smell for an extended moment. Cinnamon, fresh torn bark, rosemary, fresh tobacco, muddled plums, black cherries, rose petals, milk chocolate, plunger coffee. It smells like the ideal Sunday morning breakfast – soft and welcoming with warm spice.
The wine will require some time to open, yet the impressive length and vertical tannins are incredibly tempting immediately. Once awake, beautiful salty liquorice, red and black pepper, and clove spice wrap a brooding core of plum, ripe blood orange and blood. Cracked fennel seed amaro finishes the wine with a lovely, salivating bitterness. It's super delicious to me – very balanced and promising for the years ahead.
Vineyard
Just three rows of Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso at Chalmers in the south east corner of the property on the ultra red Colbo soils. These blocks are planted east/west orientation which helps moderate the impact of the midday sun. Planted in 2015, these vines are very well suited to Colbinabbin and one of my very favourite parcels each season.
Winemaking
The wine is harvested on phenolics, typically with delicious dark fruit. Entirely destemmed and fermented in a combination of closed and open stainless steel. Pump-overs are done daily once fermentation begins, with plenty of oxygen via splashing and délestage.
Pressing takes place depending on phenolic resolution, which was after two and a half or three weeks depending on the ferment. We press to taste, taking a moderate amount of pressings with free run and combining them immediately. We keep the wine in an unsealed tank post-pressing, allowing oxygen to work the tannins into shape. Racked to barrel a few weeks later. A single new Stockinger demi-muid was selected and kept in cask without racking or addition until June 2025. Racked and blended with a small unoaked portion for balance. Bottled August 2025.